Fun With Accidents

Thursday, November 03, 2005, at 04:02AM

By Eric Richardson

So the MTA's new Orange Line busway is having a problem with cars. The LA Times today reports that there were two collisions yesterday. The MTA's response: slow down the buses.

Yaroslavsky realized this after witnessing several near-misses. On Wednesday morning, after hearing of the first accident of the day, he suggested that MTA chief Roger Snoble slow down the buses. After the second accident, Snoble imposed a bus speed limit of 10 mph at intersections.

But I fail to see how that's going to do anything.

The more serious collision Wednesday occurred shortly after 2 p.m., at Woodman Avenue and Oxnard Street in Valley Glen. A 78-year-old woman driving south on Woodman -- who, witnesses told police, was talking on a cellphone -- ran a red light and crashed into the midsection of a bus, spun around and struck the bus again.

If anything the bus needs to speed up so it has less time in the intersection and less opportunity for dumb valley drivers to hit it. I mean come on, she hit the midsection of a 60-foot bus. We welcome Houston drivers to the valley.