An out-of-service SEPTA trolley crashed into a historic home at the corner of Island and Woodland Avenues in Southwest Philadelphia Thursday night.
The wreck was caught on camera as the slow-rolling trolley going off the tracks, into an SUV and into the stone façade of the old Blue Bell Inn (sometimes referred to as a tavern) that has sat on the corner since 1766.
"A SEPTA trolley just went through my living room," Delia King, the woman who cares for the pre-Revolutionary War building, said.
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King and her cat escaped without injury.
There were no passengers on board the trolley, but a mechanic suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The two people in the SUV were also hurt. Officials have not released their conditions.
"I saw a trolley coming backward down the track," a witness said.
SEPTA Transit Police and Safety System are investigating.
Previous SEPTA crashes
This is now the fifth crash involving a SEPTA vehicle in less than a week in the Philadelphia area.
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"Any accident to us is important," Scott Sauer, SEPTA's chief operating officer said. "The recent rash of incidents is troubling to us. We wanna make sure that everyone understands the system is safe."
A driver was hurt after a SEPTA bus jumped a curb and hit a wall near 15th and Walnut Streets in Center City on Tuesday night. There were no passengers on board when the crash happened.
On Monday, July 24, seven people were hurt after two SEPTA trolleys collided in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, according to SEPTA officials.
In another incident, a SEPTA bus crashed into a pole in Philadelphia on Sunday night, SEPTA officials told NBC10. Four people were hurt.
A 72-year-old woman was killed and 19 others were injured when a SEPTA bus backed into another bus in North Philadelphia on Friday, July 21.
SEPTA shared that 33 collisions happened between their vehicles from 2020-2022. Passengers were hurt in just five of those 33 crashes.
Between January 1, 2023, and July 25, 2023, there were eight crashes between SEPTA vehicles, compared to:
- 9 in 2020, with 2 injuries to bus/trolley passengers
- 5 in 2021, with no injuries to bus/trolley passengers
- 6 in 2022, with one injury to bus/trolley passengers
Riders shared their concerns with NBC10.
"I think they’re short staffed. I think they need more help. They need to hire more people," Elisha Miller, of Philadelphia, said.
"To have one crash in one day is a concern so this is very concerning to us," Ron Keele, Chief Safety Officer at SEPTA, said. "We’re looking at all of our rules and regulations. We’re doing what we call a Safety Stand Down. We're going out talking to all the employees about being safe. We're reiterating all the safety rules and operations rules we have in place."
SEPTA told NBC10 that it has 1,100 buses out every day to serve 300,000 riders in the Philadelphia area. Officials urge riders that SEPTA is a safe way to travel and commute.
"We know that incidents like these shake the public’s confidence in SEPTA. We have stressed to executive staff that they need to be transparent with the public about the findings of these investigations," the SEPTA Board said in a statement.
The board also said that the safety of customers and employees is their top priority and they have been troubled by the series of recent accidents involving SEPTA buses and trolleys.
