Tri-Met spokesperson: "This was an unfortunate situation." Isn't that Tri-Met's slogan?

"He tried calling Tri-Met but didn't get a response, until News Channel 8 called."
Standard operating procedure!

Those shiny new glass bus shelters are going to suck up the maintenance budget. The only thing they shelter are the new big screen plasma reader boards.
They offer precious little protection from the wind and rain, and I'm sure the vandals are going to have a field day.

I'm glad the 3 year old was standing next to the redhead and not some tweaker.

I'll keep my car, thanks.

Fred doesn't care. He's already retired. Just showin' up at the office for appearances sake. He's set for life. Probably has a retirement package that rivals Peggy Fowlers....

You know, this reminded me of how much we've been inundated with every kind of sicko story in the news.
This redheaded woman emerging from humanity here seems like an angel. It seems like tremendous good fortune that she came along, and of course, it was. Especially after what's on the news day after day.

I mean when was the last time you saw a video like this where something good happened? We're conditioned to expect these videos to go very, very badly.

Forget - if you can - the endless stories about child abusers, etc...just having the kid wandering near the tracks by himself is scary enough.
So yes, this was a great turn of events.

But humanity is not that bad. I think well over 99% of the people out there would make sure this kid was safe. It's just that we're so worn down by all the sicko stories, that the fact the kid survived at all seems like winning the Lottery.

Interesting. If the child hit the handicap ramp button, the doors should have opened up again after the ramp extended out from the train. So yeah, if it didn't, it is most certainly a malfunction and I'm really interested as to how that could have slipped through maintenance.

In any case, this shouldn't have ever happened. And I'm glad there was a nice lady who stayed with the child (which actually is more surprising than a TriMet equipment malfunction).

Does anybody know how to directly email the Trimet Board of Directors and Mr. Hansen? Predictably, the Trimet website doesn't have such information readily available. I suppose they are too busy bungling their organization to be bothered with any direct public feedback.

HansenF@trimet.org has worked for me (if you take a generous view of the word "worked").

Good thing that cop wasn't there to beat down the kid, who obviously shouldn't have been on the platform without adult escort.

Maybe next time dad will carry the tiny 3 year old instead of making the world wait for him to teach him how to walk off the train all by himself. Give it two more years, pops!

If I got separated from my kid id yank that emergency stop lever. The train can't go nowhere when one of those are activated and the doors automatically unlock.

Hey look at the positive side. The intercom may not work but the public relations department does.

That P.R. department should get an award.

All complaints need to be reported to the Press first. Quasi-governmental agencies are not able to address a complaint without public outcry.

Per this evening's news interview with a Tri-Met representative, there was no malfunction. She explained that the driver probably overrode the handicap ramp button. When asked if the drivers don't check to see what is happening before doing that, the representative said that she was sure they did but either didn't see the boy or assumed that the woman next to him was his mother.

Why are drivers able to override emergency or handicapped buttons at all without being completely sure of why they're being activated? After all, the driver is at one end or the other of the MAX while the door is often at the other end or in the middle. One of the things about MAX and the streetcar, unlike buses, is that the driver is isolated and does not interact with passengers unless there is an emergency. The door between passengers and driver is usually closed and locked.

There was no explanation for why the driver didn't acknowledge the father's frantic emergency button pushing.

By the way, they offered the mother and father free year Tri-Met passes and an apology.

Trimet sucks!!! So what if they get a Trimet pass for a year. If I were that dad I'd be driving my car not taking Trimet.

Blame TRIMET, blame the OPERATOR, blame blame blame.

Hey, this is AMERICA, where its always easier to blame someone else than take responsibility.

Of course its all the rage to point the finger at the most evil of government agencies, TRIMET, the #1 punching bag for all the anti government lunatics that live in the greater Portland area.

The dad is the one that is at fault, how come he wasn't watching out for his son?

And from what I understand, he could have stopped the train by pulling the emergency stop control in the glass box, which he did not do.

In any event, this is not something that is so unusual, it happens quite often actually, but right about now putting TRIMET in the news guarantees a certain amount of sales and/or readers.

Nothing happened, it wasn't news! The only story here is a public interest story on a good Samaritan who took the time to tend to the child.

Need to sue Otis for all those times the elevator took off with one or more of our kids when we were struggling to get the rest of them inside.

...instead of making the world wait for him to teach him how to walk off the train all by himself.

He had hold of the kid's hand. Not exactly the same thing as teaching him to walk off by himself.

Nothing happened, it wasn't news!

You've got to be kidding, Al. This was a serious disaster in the making, caused by bad maintenance, operator error, bad equipment design, or all of the above. If you want to marginalize yourself further, just keep shouting about it, but this one isn't going away.

If you want to marginalize yourself further, just keep shouting about it, but this one isn't going away.

I don't worry about being "marginalized".

This was not a big deal, that's my opinion, I think its all hype.

I say what I feel, if that leads to marginalization then so be it!

(I still think you should run for mayor)

What about the kids and parents that get permanently separated everyday by getting into a crash and either the parent(s) or kid(s) dying? I have to agree it's unreasonable to "sue Otis for all those times the elevator took off" (I'm assuming that wasn't a serious comment).

Overall, in this case parent and child were reunited and everything turned out OK. And when I got to ride the DC subway as part of a school-sponsored trip way back when, we were briefed beforehand on what to do if we didn't make it off the train with the rest of the group. Why? Because it can happen!

Here Jack, since your so worried about the youth of our city I think you should read the STATISTICS

I suppose Trimet is to blame for this.

Wait a minute, stop the presses, this actually might be part of a bigger problem which is NATIONAL

Maybe I am over reacting.