Motorist in Muni tunnel was drunk, SF police say S.F. TRANSIT

Police have arrested a man who drove his SUV into the underground San Francisco Municipal Railway Metro system Thursday, causing a major headache for Thursday morning commuters. Police have arrested a man who drove his SUV into the underground San Francisco Municipal Railway Metro system Thursday, causing a major headache for Thursday morning commuters. Photo: Cbs5 Photo: Cbs5 Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Motorist in Muni tunnel was drunk, SF police say 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

A drunken driver in an SUV blundered into the Muni Metro tunnel in downtown San Francisco, bringing train service to a halt for more than two hours Thursday morning after he became stuck half a mile in, authorities said.

The driver of the sport utility vehicle got into the tunnel from a ramp at Church Street and Duboce Avenue just before 6 a.m. and made it almost to the Van Ness Station before becoming stuck, said Muni spokesman Paul Rose.

Underground Metro service was halted while police moved the SUV off the tracks and into a siding. Muni put bus shuttles on the street for Metro passengers whose trains ground to a halt.

After crews inspected the system and made minor repairs, service was restored at 8:30 a.m., Rose said. Trains moved slowly through the area all day, however, pending more extensive repairs that Muni was planning to make Thursday night.

The SUV driver, 40-year-old Scott Mitchell of Sebastopol, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, failure to obey a stop sign and driving on train tracks, police said. Mitchell has a clean driving record, the Department of Motor Vehicles said.

One witness, Randall Gerstbacher, said the SUV had been behind a J-Church train as it headed into the inbound tunnel. The Metro train paused, Gerstbacher said, and the driver continued around it and into the outbound tunnel.

Muni employees in a nearby transit agency building chased the SUV into the tunnel on foot, Gerstbacher said.

"Good times on Muni," he said. "The whole thing was very surreal."

It wasn't the first time a car has driven into the Muni tunnel at Church and Duboce. In October 2010, a drunken driver entered the tunnel early one morning and traveled "quite a distance" before becoming stuck, police said.

"But he didn't make it as far as this driver did," Rose said.