SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Corazon Dandan was ready for a BART practice on the Powell Road station in San Francisco when she was pushed to her loss of life in the summertime of 2024. Now her household is taking authorized motion towards Bay Space Fast Transit District demanding that the general public transit system enhance security for all riders.
On Tuesday, attorneys representing Dandan’s nephew and 6 siblings slapped BART with a wrongful loss of life lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Courtroom.
The swimsuit claims that the Bay Space’s largest public transit system has a “long history of violent deaths and assaults on BART platforms and tracks.” BART law enforcement officials fail to take away mentally unstable criminals from stations, and the company “enables horrific crimes to continue,” in response to attorneys with the legislation agency Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy.
A BART spokesperson declined to remark concerning the lawsuit on Wednesday.
On the evening of July 1, 2024, Dandan was working at a resort in Union Sq.. After she left work, she went to the Energy Road station to catch a practice residence to Daly Metropolis.
Corazon Dandan (Photograph courtesy Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy and Pritzker Levine)
Dandan, 74, was pushed by Trevor Belmont, aka “Hoak Taing,” into the trail of an oncoming practice, in response to police and attorneys. “Corazon’s head struck the oncoming train, and she fell backwards onto the platform. She suffered and died,” the lawsuit states.
Belmont was a repeat fare evader and sexual predator who had beforehand been ordered by a decide to steer clear of BART stations, in response to the swimsuit. The 49-year-old homeless man is at present in jail and charged with homicide.
“It’s not just him. There’s a lot of people out there who (are) just circling the train station,” the sufferer’s nephew instructed reporters on Wednesday. “I know because the moment that happened to my aunt, I went to that station myself. There’s about a dozen people in there who I didn’t feel safe (around.”
Lawyer Nanci Nishimura stated, “This lawlessness has to stop. BART has long been on notice about the need for improved safety and protection.”
A person waits for an arriving practice at BART Powell Road station in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, February 11, 2020. (Photograph by Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle through Getty Photographs)
Dandan’s household characterised her as an unbiased and pushed lady. She labored two jobs for over 25 years. When she was far into retirement age, she continued working on the resort as a telephone operator and commuting into San Francisco.
“Corazon demonstrated incredible generosity in her life. Corazon helped to finance the education of many of her family members, including her beloved nephew Alvin. She assisted with the tuition and expenses of medical school, which enabled him to become an intensive care doctor,” attorneys wrote.
Belmont’s prison historical past on BART
Belmont was arrested 27 occasions in a number of Bay Space counties, attorneys stated.
In 2018, he was convicted for partaking in lewd conduct when he publicly uncovered himself on a BART practice close to Oakland’s Lake Merritt. He allegedly instructed law enforcement officials that he struggled to regulate his “sexual urges,” attorneys stated. He was arrested once more in 2018 after officers noticed him swinging his fists at BART riders on the platform of the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station.
BART crime sees double digit drop from final yr
Extra violence, deaths on BART
The Dandan household’s attorneys compiled an inventory of violent incidents that occurred at BART stations each earlier than and after Dandan’s loss of life. In response to the lawsuit, a few of these incidents embody:
On November 2, 2024, a person slashed a 54-year-old Asian lady on a BART practice rolling into twenty fourth Road station.
On November 13, 2024, a person was discovered stabbed to loss of life outdoors the Embarcadero BART station and the killer fled into the station. Johnathon Calvin Wright, 36, was later arrested by police.
On July 22, 2018, three sisters, Nia, Letifah, and Tashiya Wilson, had been attacked at MacArthur station in Oakland. Nia and Letifah had been stabbed within the neck by a BART rider, John Lee Cowell. Eighteen-year-old Nia died on the platform. Cowell, who had an intensive historical past of psychological sickness, was convicted of homicide.
Nia Wilson / Fb
In March 2021, a girl was assaulted by a person whereas commuting on a BART practice. On the Bay Truthful station, a person adopted her off the practice, onto the platform, and pushed her in the direction of the tracks. The sufferer was solely three ft from the sting of the platform when she was pushed towards an electrified third rail. The girl was in a position to hold her steadiness and stay on the platform.
On June 15, 2020, a person was pushed onto the tracks of downtown Berkeley’s BART station as a practice arrived on the platform. The sufferer was ready for the practice when he was shoved, unprovoked, onto the trackway 5 ft beneath. He averted being hit by scrambling right into a slender crawl area between the platform and the practice.
BART-LAWSUITDownload
The lawsuit accuses BART officers of failing to take actions to make platforms safer with a view to stop individuals being pushed or falling onto the tracks.
