Opinion

Somerville: BART riders work together to help woman whose wheelchair rolled across car

Passengers on crowded BART train hold onto hand straps as they travel through Oakland on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. Passengers on crowded BART train hold onto hand straps as they travel through Oakland on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close Somerville: BART riders work together to help woman whose wheelchair rolled across car 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

For all the negative we hear about BART, here's something positive.

Trista Beauchamp sent me this about what happened to an elderly woman in a wheelchair.

Here's what she wrote:

"This morning during my usual BART ride to work an elderly woman in a wheelchair boarded.

Before her daughter had a chance to lock the wheels (which only locked on the back) the train lurched forward and she came flying across the open area crashing into the priority seating, and getting her foot stuck under the seat.

For all of the negative things I see on BART it was beautiful to see everyone on that car working together to help this lady first to get her for dislodged then to get safely situated.

There was medical advice to keep her shoe and sock on for compression and a young man even took the ice pack out of his lunch box for her to use.

People of many different cultures backgrounds and ages. Yay humans on BART!

I should also mention that BART had an attendant of some kind board the train at the next stop who confirmed the woman was okay, and we went on our way. If only they could respond that way to other 'crises.'"

—Trista Beauchamp

Frank Somerville is a contributor to SFGATE and anchors the 5, 6, and 10 p.m. news on KTVU. This post originally appeared on his Facebook page.