Forty-eight people were taken to hospitals — four with what appeared to be severe injuries — when a San Francisco Municipal Railway L train rear-ended a K train at the boarding platform at about 2:30 pm on Saturday, officials said.
Deputy Chief Pat Gardner of the San Francisco Fire Department said about half of those wounded suffered moderate injuries and that everyone who was injured remained conscious.
According to witnesses, the westbound L train barreled into the K train as it emerged from a tunnel connecting downtown San Francisco to the western neighborhoods of the city.
The front of the L train was smashed, while the K train sustained less damage. Witnesses said more than a dozen people sat on benches along the boarding platform after the crash, some of them bleeding from their heads. Most of the passengers were adults.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Published 19 July 2009, 17:08 IST