Two BART Workers Killed During Maintenance Work as Strike Moves Into Third Day - San Jose Mercury News
WALNUT CREEK — The heated rhetoric of the ongoing BART strike gave way to sorrow Saturday after a train being run by an “experienced” former operator struck and killed two workers who were inspecting the track between the Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill stations.
A BART manager was returning a train to the Concord yard around 1:53 p.m. after delivering vandalized cars to Richmond to be cleaned when he struck the two transit agency workers who were inspecting the track after reports of “dip” in the rail, a BART assistant general manager said.
The engineers were the seventh and eighth BART workers to die on the job in the transit agency’s 41-year history. Officials did not release the workers’ names, age or cities of residence.
BART officials said one of the workers was a BART employee and the other a contractor. Officials at AFSCME Local 3993 said one of the workers was in the union; members of AFSCME are free to cross the picket line but are encouraged to “stand in solidarity,” according to President Patricia Schuchardt.