There was plenty of cellphone video given to us by a passenger as he and others tried to make their way out of the disabled BART train. It happened at around 10 a.m. with 421 passengers on board.
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"It felt almost like someone just pulled the plug out from the train and everyone just got thrown back. I actually got thrown back and fell back into my chair," explained Jeff Estrellanes, a passenger who was traveling from Fremont.
Those on the train said they waited 30 minutes before an announcement was made.
"It was 30 minutes, no announcement, and then one of the technicians came in and said they were going to restart the computer and they tried restarting the computer and all it did was turn off the AC," said Vaishaal Shankar, a BART passenger.
Shankar had a similar situation happen to him at another BART station last Friday. Except that Monday's train was one of the new ones, part of BART's Fleet of the Future rail cars.
BART spokesperson Anna Duckworth said the agency is investigating the cause of the break down. It was taken to the MacArthur Station.
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"It's unfortunate that one of our cars broke down, our new train broke down, but we are very happy that everybody was able to get our safely," said Duckworth.
"Basically, what is going to happen is there are people who will be at the next station." That was the announcement made before the evacuation began.
Because the train was so close to the 12th Street Station in Oakland, passengers were evacuated and escorted in the dark by BART personnel. They had to use the elevated walkway alongside the tracks.
"Flashlights, making sure people were walking in the right direction, but if you fell you'd get hurt, so I didn't think there would be that kind of a risk in my Monday morning commute," said Estrellanes.
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