SUV Gets Squished Between Muni Bus, Streetcar

Three people were hospitalized this afternoon after a car got  sandwiched between two San Francisco Municipal Railway vehicles on Market  Street, blocking traffic in the area for more than an hour, fire and Muni  officials said.
    The crash was reported around 12:20 p.m. on Market Street near  First Street and involved a white car that got smashed between a Muni bus and  streetcar, fire department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said.
    Nine people suffered minor injuries but six declined transport to  the hospital, Talmadge said.
    The two occupants of the car, described by witnesses as a woman  and child, were taken to the hospital as a precaution, while a passenger in  the streetcar was also hospitalized but walked into the ambulance, Muni  spokesman Paul Rose said.
    Rose said the crash apparently occurred when the Muni streetcar  was traveling east and rear-ended the car, which then got pushed forward into  the bus.
    He said the cause of the crash remains under investigation, but  that the streetcar operator appears to have pulled the emergency brake on the  vehicle just before striking the car.
    The F-Market & Wharves streetcar line was blocked at the  intersection and the 38-Geary and 71-Haight-Noriega lines were rerouted  around the area until the scene was cleared at 1:44 p.m., Rose said.
    He said the streetcar operator has been placed on non-driving  status pending the investigation into the crash and will undergo alcohol and  drug testing, as is standard Muni procedure.