Documents: King County spent millions to settle Metro lawsuits
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SEATTLE -- Documents show King County has paid out more than $50 million to settle lawsuits in the past three years, and the bulk of those problems came from a single agency.
The county and its taxpayers have spent millions in recent years to settle more than 50 lawsuits, and a large percentage of them involve King County Metro.
Matt Rosenberg is the editor of a watchdog website called Public Eye Northwest, and he said the records from King County's legal settlements deeply trouble him.
"All kinds of things that didn't have to happen and that shouldn't have happened," Rosenberg said.
The Problem Solvers looked through nearly 60 settlements that total more than $53 million taxpayer dollars in the last three years, and Metro is responsible for nearly of that.
"That's just ghastly, horrific stuff," Rosenberg said.
A West Seattle case was settled last year for $5 million. According to country records, a Metro bus went through an intersection, plowed into a woman and rolled over her, causing severe injuries.
She was in the hospital for a month before being moved to a nursing home.
"People's lives are permanently changed, and so often it involves a Metro bus," Rosenberg said.
In another case, a woman was hit by a Metro bus in an intersection along the waterfront. The county said she suffered a traumatic brain injury and now has nightmares and post traumatic stress disorder.
That case was settled for $4.5 million.
A woman in Tukwila was hit by a bus, causing a fractured pelvis and hip. The county settled that case for $2 million.
A Capitol Hill collision put a woman into a coma for days. Her settlement was $5 million.
"That's not chump change," Rosenberg said.
County records show Metro's settlements accounted for 70 percent of all claims last year. Rosenberg said even with all those millions of dollars, settling can save money.
"These payouts are a business transaction and a necessary evil," he said.
But Metro points out that really severe cases with high settlements, are a very small percentage of its accidents and can be misleading.
"It's hard to understand trends from settlements because you're settling something that might have been an incident 2,3,4, 5 years ago," said Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond.
Metro says what they pay the most attention to is safety, and the trend they watch most closely is the accident trend, which Metro says has gone done steadily by 38 percent over the past 20 years.
"We might have a little up and down but they're steadily going down because we focus on this," Desmond said.
Another trend Metro points to: the number of claims filed for those really severe accidents. King County says those are also down, with no claims over half a million dollars filed in the past two years.
Many of the Metro cases are less serious with awards in the $100,000 to $200,000 range. But as Rosenberg points out, it all adds up.
"All kinds of things that didn't have to happen and that shouldn't have happened," he said.
Both Metro and Rosenberg both stress that the vast majority of rides and drivers are completely safe on a system that serves 400,000 riders every day.
The county and its taxpayers have spent millions in recent years to settle more than 50 lawsuits, and a large percentage of them involve King County Metro.
Matt Rosenberg is the editor of a watchdog website called Public Eye Northwest, and he said the records from King County's legal settlements deeply trouble him.
"All kinds of things that didn't have to happen and that shouldn't have happened," Rosenberg said.
The Problem Solvers looked through nearly 60 settlements that total more than $53 million taxpayer dollars in the last three years, and Metro is responsible for nearly of that.
"That's just ghastly, horrific stuff," Rosenberg said.
A West Seattle case was settled last year for $5 million. According to country records, a Metro bus went through an intersection, plowed into a woman and rolled over her, causing severe injuries.
She was in the hospital for a month before being moved to a nursing home.
"People's lives are permanently changed, and so often it involves a Metro bus," Rosenberg said.
In another case, a woman was hit by a Metro bus in an intersection along the waterfront. The county said she suffered a traumatic brain injury and now has nightmares and post traumatic stress disorder.
That case was settled for $4.5 million.
A woman in Tukwila was hit by a bus, causing a fractured pelvis and hip. The county settled that case for $2 million.
A Capitol Hill collision put a woman into a coma for days. Her settlement was $5 million.
"That's not chump change," Rosenberg said.
County records show Metro's settlements accounted for 70 percent of all claims last year. Rosenberg said even with all those millions of dollars, settling can save money.
"These payouts are a business transaction and a necessary evil," he said.
But Metro points out that really severe cases with high settlements, are a very small percentage of its accidents and can be misleading.
"It's hard to understand trends from settlements because you're settling something that might have been an incident 2,3,4, 5 years ago," said Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond.
Metro says what they pay the most attention to is safety, and the trend they watch most closely is the accident trend, which Metro says has gone done steadily by 38 percent over the past 20 years.
"We might have a little up and down but they're steadily going down because we focus on this," Desmond said.
Another trend Metro points to: the number of claims filed for those really severe accidents. King County says those are also down, with no claims over half a million dollars filed in the past two years.
Many of the Metro cases are less serious with awards in the $100,000 to $200,000 range. But as Rosenberg points out, it all adds up.
"All kinds of things that didn't have to happen and that shouldn't have happened," he said.
Both Metro and Rosenberg both stress that the vast majority of rides and drivers are completely safe on a system that serves 400,000 riders every day.
Often flying is compared to being relatively safe for the amount of hours in service. The buses log in a lot of miles so I wonder what the per-accident percent is compared to hours of operation? Fortunatly there are no pedestrians at 32,000 feet.
And ALL, by LAW must YIELD to Metro. "come ride with us"??
Problem Solvers:Â How does this compare to other national transit systems?
OK, that's it, we need to just ban these damn buss's now!!
I have noticed in Seattle there are lots of pedestrians and bikers who pay absolutely no attention to what's going on around them. You kind of get the impression that they expect everyone else to look out for their personal safety. Most of us were taught when we were very young to always look both ways before stepping off the curb, but I see people now who just step off the curb and walk not paying a bit of attention to what's coming. I'm fairly sure if there's a bus that close to you, you would notice it. To assume that someone else always has your back isn't a good idea.
 @Jatok Because seattle law protects peds from traffic (they have ROW) they could care less. Se how they stroll across the street in the middle of the block a dare you to hit them. Metro drivers dare you to get in their way.
@contraryjim Well, I guess it might be an odd thing to say, but I would rather take the responsibility of seeing to my own personal safety. I could be "dead" wrong if I assummed that someone else might do that. In this particular case I'm not going to argue with a metro bus and think anything good will come from it.
It's okay. To pay for it they just slash service causing hardships for many.
I knew I should have sued King County Metro after I was rear ended by a bus on I-90 about 6 years ago. Â I still suffer from shoulder pain and nerve issues as a result of this accident. Â I was stupid enough to settle for just the repairs to my car, the initial medical bills and some lost wages. Â If I ever have to go through this again, which I hope I don't, I will sue for big bucks.
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@Tooby Roosday Us tax payers just really appreciate people like you. If the government didn't have deep taxpayer pockets would you then sue the person responsible for this accident. Of course not it wouldn't add up to millions of dollars.
 @Jatok  @Tooby @Jatok - HUH?  I'm a taxpayer too.  Your comment makes you sound like a troll, because I'd be willing to bet you'd sue too.  What this article fails to mention is that the county's insurance pays for the bulk of these law suits.
@Tooby Roosday @Tooby Well you'd be wrong that I was trolling and you'd also be wrong that I'd sue. But then you'll have to believe what you want. What do you want to bet that everytime the insurance company pays out the rates go up. It's called cause and effect.
"Metro Transit takes passenger and pedestrian safety very seriously..." Â
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After reading this statement, I have to wonder if anybody from Metro actually observes their drivers. Â After living here for 33 years, all I can say is - METRO, YOU ARE BOLD FACED LIARS!
Taxpayers spent millions to settle Metro lawsuits.
metro is such a waste just as a transportation agency, this stuff on top of their general uselessness is terrible.
 @SwampThing Except for those of us who use it every single day?
@quidproquo I've used metro for years also (not anymore)....the fact is that ridership doesn't even come close to paying for the service; that is why I consider it a waste.
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It is the SOP to settle rather than to take to trial. Each case mentioned in this article is a line and there is no reference to exactly what happened. If we knew exactly what happened and all the factors, if the driver is obviously guilty, then it is cheaper to settle than face lawsuit after lawsuit of sue happy people.
What happened to the drivers? Did their union save their jobs? They get paid a bloody fortune to drive and their bennies are to die for.....
Eh. A cost of doing business.
A reality of our world.
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Just make sure low quality drivers can be fired readily rather than protected by a union whose interests are not well aligned with reasonable decision making.
Truly folks ... DOES THIS REALLY SURPRIZE YOU... next I hope will be Pierce Transit ...
How about an investigation into Metro drivers and not letting them hide behind the union, are you listening Dow Constantine?Â
Hmm, if Metro could get all its drivers to drive safely maybe they wouldn't have to talk about cutting service, let alone spew tax payer money to pay for the sins of those who are bad drivers. I've talked with people about things we've seen Metro drivers do: run red lights, block crosswalks, speed, not give pedestrians the right of way, pull right out into traffic instead of waiting for a line of cars to pass, and so on. As for people who may have stepped out from the sidewalk when they should not have the first rule of driving is to expect the unexpected.Â
@Citizen#3457899654 Don't you know, everyone is supposed to "Yield To Bus".  Well at least that what some of the drivers think.
 @Citizen#3457899654 I would guess that we fail to recognize that 99.9% of the time that those things did not happen. And if you ever want to hear stories about REALLY bad drivers or clueless pedestrians, talk to a Metro driver.
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"Was there a reason you rear-ended a base car (one where a driver uses to make a road-relief) in a pullout bus zone while travelling 40 mph zone in broad daylight, ma'am?"
"I didn't see you there."
True story
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Average time elapsed between when a Metro driver uses his/her turn signal to merge back into traffic and the time a vehicle travelling in the same direction but one block behind hits the accelerator afterburners, so as not to "let" the bus in? Four nanoseconds.
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Direction a passenger will look when crossing in front of your bus after getting off at a zone on a busy street.
Right.
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Number of times a vehicle has made a 90 degree right-hand turn in front of the bus from the 2nd or 3rd lane. A gazillion.
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I think one problem is that the schedules have been shortened (yeah, traffic and customer loads are WAY down, right?) and layover times almost eliminated. So if a driver is not on time to his or her terminal and starts back late on the next trip, the effect cascades. Hopefully, Metro will someday be able to write a schedule that wasn't created by throwing darts at a clock and a map.
The problem is Metro will hire anyone with a heart beat to drive for them. I say we cut all public funding to the system and make those who ride the buses pay for their service themselves.
 @Reggie So if the fare is $2.50 now do you think $35 (a proportional guess) a trip is realistic or reasonable? If you want the benefits of Seattle growing then mass transit is part of what makes a city work. Think about that the next time you are sitting on I-5 looking out at all the other single occupant cars going nowhere.Â
 @Citizen#3457899654  @Reggie AND if you remove the subsidy the system will run better. Right now some routes are hugely over subscribed. My wife would love to get back on the bus from downtown Seattle to Redmond but she got fed up after watching bus after bus go past because it was too full during rush hour. Which is when she needed to use the darn bus!
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If the subsidies were removed then the operators could simply and unilaterally add another bus without having to go to tax payers for additional sales taxes, or other funding mechanisms. New buses would be paid for out of the fares generated.
 @Citizen#3457899654  @Reggie I have researched this topic. Overall, and the routes vary, the fare is about half the cost of the ride. IOW, remove subsidies and the cost will go from $2.50 to about $5.00. I guess it would be a decision to make about whether the costs rise overall or whether you make each route pay for itself, because even today some routes pay for themselves and some are massively subsidized.
Your tax dollars hard at work. And many of you want the state to be able to raise taxes...
Here's what I don't like; The drivers complete and utter reliance on  RCW 46.61.220 posted on the back of each bus.
If you're passing a stopped bus on the left side, there is no change in the signal lighting (brightness, flash frequency etc.) when a driver switches from stop lights to left turn (if they use them at all). So even though the front end of your car has passed the rear end of a 75 foot long bus, the driver will still aggressively pull the front of the bus out in front of you. Â
@bagsofdirt I see this very often - either a bus is at a stop with blinking "stopped" lights and then simply jabs into traffic, no turn light to indicate intention OR the split second turn signal to jab into traffic lane "who-cares-you-have-to-yield-to-me-by-law" style.
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probably a tough job, but the "yield to busses" law would be easier to follow if the busses would use proper signals, not just fly out into traffic because they think they can.
@bagsofdirt You know, I commented before about Metro buses running lights and pulling out in front of people just as you are saying. I got flack for it too. People saying they never see buses doing this etc... I agree with you, that sign on the back seems to give them a free pass to be dangerous. They should have to obey traffic like the rest of us.
@swansong68 If nobody says they see this tell them to watch for buses on NB I5, that are in the carpool lane & all of a sudden fly over 4 lanes because they need to get off on the W Seattle Bridge exit.
What the article fails to mention is that this money isn't paid for my tax dollars, it's paid for by insurance companies, and is standard practice for any major transportation system. No news here.
@customerservice I see and there is NO INSURANCE Â RATE INCREASE involved here.. that the tax payer pays for one way or another ??????????????
 @customerservice And how do they pay for that insurance?  And how about the hike in rates for every payout?  Fact of the matter is, if the drivers of these buses where held to the same standards as other drivers, or even other bus drivers (Not city or county mass transit) then Metro would be paying less in insurance rates, meaning it would be less cost to the taxpayers.
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I'm sure King County taxpayers are furious.
How will anyone ever milk another easy dollar out of them?
Get the taxpayer and government out of bus service. Let people who want to ride them pay for them on their own.
 @sometimesright Probably not feasible. The transit system we already have is dependent on hundreds of millions of dollars a year in taxpayer subsidies just to keep it running, so the whole system would collapse in about ten minutes without it. Second, I suspect that privatized bus service would be regulated into oblivion even quicker than that.
See this all the time: Â Metro buses either blowing red lights, or pulling into intersections when they don't have enough room, the light turns red, then they block intersections where pedestrians are trying to walk when it is their turn. Â I'm only surprised it doesn't happen more often than it does already. Â "Metro takes passenger and pedestrian safety very seriously" - yeah right!
I see it every single day, Metro operators in complete disregard for the same traffic laws that regular motorists are expected to obey and are cited for if we dont. Most common is metro drivers running red lights, as if they are exempt and I'm tired of seeing this happen. Metro drivers refuse to let you off the bus if they are stopped at a red light along the curb for "safety reasons", yet they refuse to obey traffic laws that are designed for safety reasons in mind. Keep up the outstanding work Metro, keep posting your "Operator of the year", and "maintenance worker of the year" signs in the buses; apparently that is all that matters is the smoke and mirrors.
 @northwestsurfer When you say running red-lights,are you referring to BEFORE the bus enters the intersection on a yellow?  And then turns red? Not to say it doesn't happen, I am on the road all day long  and have rarely seen a Metro bus blow through a red. And yes, drivers ARE prohibited from letting you off outside a bus zone (night stops are the exception). In fact, if a driver does so, he or she can be held INDIVIDUALLY liable. Read that;"Pay for your own lawyer, buster.We told you not to let folks off there but NOOOO,"
@Getov Mylon @northwestsurfer I've seen more times where the driver will go thru the intersection when the light is red, then when they go thru the light & it changes while they are in the middle of the intersection
@Getov Mylon Stop with the caps dude, I can read what you wrote just fine without the annoying caps. I am not complaining about not being able to get off the bus at a red light; my point (maybe you should read now) is that metro operators will arbitrarily choose which laws or rules they wish to obey. When I say running red lights, I mean running a red light, not a yellow light. Running a red light is entering an intersection and disregarding a light that has turned red before entering. Quit playing semantics.
 @northwestsurfer  @Getov Sorry for the Capital Crimes. Metro drivers can and have (no capital letters!) been ticketed for running red, speeding in school zones, etc... just like anybody else.