DETROIT – The Detroit People Mover has reopened after a derailment Thursday night and further inspections on Friday.
The People Mover first reopened Friday morning after an accident derailed one of the cars Thursday night. However, the rail system was closed again Friday for inspections. Now, it's officially open, and customers are being offered free rides on Friday.
At about 10:10 p.m. Thursday, a car slid off the tracks and hit a platform at the Times Square stop near the Rosa Parks Transit Center. The door to the People Mover car was damaged, and the car was left blocking the tracks. The car experienced a component failure that caused it to move out of alignment, the Detroit Transportation Corporation (DTC) says.
About 20-to-30 people were onboard the train at the time, but no one was hurt.
"Everyone came off in an orderly fashion. They were able to disembark and I think there was approximately 25-30 people. They were able to get off in a real reasonable fashion in about a minute and a half or two minutes, no more. Again, there was no panic," said Dan Dirks, with the DTC.
The car was the only one that experienced the failure, and it has been removed from service. However, every car in the fleet needs to be inspected. Moreover, the DTC says the entire People Mover track has been inspected, not just the stop where the derailment happened.
Surveillance video shows the car door damaged as it pulls up to the Times Square stop.
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