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Metro Driver Caught Napping

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:40:05 +0000

Latest Metro Fail: Sleeping on the Job

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:38:07 +0000

YouTube video apparently shows operator napping

By JIM IOVINO

Updated 8:48 PM EDT, Thu, Jul 9, 2009
Related Topics:Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority | Adrian Fenty

A Metro train operator recently received a one-week suspension for texting while operating a train, but starting Monday future incidents will result in automatic termination.

Metro Takes Tougher Stance on Texting on the Job
Watch Video

As Metro adopts a no tolerance policy for bus and train operators using cell phones and PDAs on the job, pictures of a sleeping Metro operator surface…

Metro announced the new policy Thursday after at least one incident caught on camera by Metro riders and incidents involving operators on other transit systems across the country.

Meanwhile, in the latest Metro fail, a 14-year-old boy took video of an operator apparently nodding off while a train is speeding down Green Line tracks between College Park and Greenbelt.

The videographer, Gregory Thomas, told Fox5 that the incident happened June 18 and he sent the video to Metro June 23, the day after the deadliest crash in Metro history.

“At first he’s dozing off then, he’s not in a full sleep,” Thomas told Fox. “I see him start to doze off and his head going limp.”

Fox said Metro is reviewing the video and that it wasn’t clear what the operator was doing.

The video follows another YouTube clip of a Metro operator who was videotaped while texting on the job. That operator was suspended from his job for a week without pay.

But starting July 13, Metro’s three-strikes-and-your-out policy will be replaced by a zero-tolerance policy for any Metrobus and Metrorail operators caught using a cell phone, texting or using a PDA while operating a vehicle.

Metro said the current policy was that a first offense resulted in a five-day suspension without pay; the second a 10-day suspension without pay and the third offense resulted in termination. The new policy will be immediate termination. However, it will allow train and bus operators to use personal cell phones during a Metro-defined emergency situation.

Many, including D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, said the suspension of the train operator for texting on the job may not have been enough.

“I think you could make a strong case to fire the person,” Fenty said on his weekly Connecting with the Mayor segment on NBC4. “I can’t imagine there weren’t rules and regulations to govern that internally in WMATA.”

Of course, Fenty has his own Metro problems. The Examiner reported that the District does not have the $50 million it pledged for Metro in joint effort to provide the transit agency with dedicated funding. Where did the money go?

Mayor Adrian Fenty removed the budget item approved in November, according to a council report. Council sources said it was redirected to pay for other items.

A Fenty rep told the Examiner that the mayor is committed to providing its share of the funding, but gave no details on how it would pay it. The District already has an estimated $340 million budget shortfall over the next two years.

Metro Driver Caught Texting

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:32:58 +0000

Update – June 22, 2009 – Metro Train Crash

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:56:26 +0000

From WTOP.com

WASHINGTON – A Metro train smashed into the back of another at the height of the Monday evening rush hour, killing at least six people and injuring scores of others as cars from the trailing train jackknifed into the air and fell atop the first.One of the fatalities was a female train operator, Metro officials say. The woman’s name has not been released.

D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin says more than 70 people were transported to hospitals. Of those, two people have life-threatening injuries and 50 are classified as “walking wounded” injuries.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier says people who believe their loved ones were on the train can dial 311.

“It looks to be the worst Metro accident in D.C. history,” D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty says.

Metro General Manager John Catoe says it appears one of the trains was stopped on the tracks awaiting permission to clear the station when another train came up behind it and slammed into the back of the train.

“I give my deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives today,” Catoe says. “This is an incredibly tragic event. We will get to the bottom and find out what happened.”

Rubin says there are about 200-250 firefighters on the scene. The firefighters are working to clear each train car. Two D.C. firefighters were injured, but their injuries are minor, Rubin says.

Authorities have scheduled a news conference for 8 a.m. Tuesday.

D.C. Police are asking everyone to stay away from the scene. Police have closed New Hampshire Avenue from Eastern Avenue to North Capitol Street as authorities investigate.

Metro is advising that people avoid the Red Line for the rest of the day.

The Red Line will be closed between the Silver Spring and Rhode Island stations through the Tuesday morning rush hour.

Shuttle buses will operate between Silver Spring and Rhode Island Avenue stations. Metro buses can hold 50-60 people.

Other Red Line trains will run in manual mode and at reduced speeds.

Washington Hospital Center is treating seven of the injured people, WTOP’s Kate Ryan reports.

The National Transportation Safety Board is now leading the investigation.

The six-car train derailed and then collided with another train on an elevated track between the Takoma Park and Fort Totten stations around 5 p.m. Monday, trapping dozens of passengers.

Each train had six cars and was capable of holding as many as 1,200 people.

Emergency crews from Montgomery, Prince George’s, Fairfax and Arlington counties are responding, Rubin says. Officials are urging people to stay away from the scene.

The trains are “lodged on top of one another,” D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter says. Officials are preparing for a “mass casualty event,” Etter says.

Rescue crews were using heavy duty equipment – including the jaws of life – to cut the train apart to rescue at least 100 people who were trapped, officials say. The extrication process appeared to be over just before 7 p.m.

Rescue workers propped steel ladders up to the upper train cars to help survivors escape. Seats from the smashed cars had spilled out onto the track.

WTOP’s Hank Silverberg, who was on the scene, reports that four cars from one train are on top of the other train, with the front of the cars completely split open.

“It looks like a deck of cards falling on top of one another,” Silverberg says. “It looks almost like the trains hit each other in a head-on collision.”

The trains look like “a tangled roller coaster,” reports WTOP’s Patricia Guadalupe, who is on the scene.

“It looks like an accident at a roller coaster ride,” Guadalupe reports.

Metro spokesperson Candace Smith calls the scene “terrible.”

“One rail car is about a third of the way on top of another rail car,” Smith says.

The train was headed toward the Shady Grove station at the time of the accident, which occurred near the Maryland-D.C. border and the New Hampshire Avenue overpass.

Metro trains typically run through the station around 44 miles per hour, Silverberg reports.

All area hospitals have been advised to expect patients, Etter says.

MARC’s Brunswick Line has been suspended indefinitely because of the derailment. MARC says it is trying to arrange a bus bridge. The derailment has not affected the Penn or Camden lines.

Monday’s incident was the second involving customer fatalities in Metro’s 33-year history. In 1982, three people died after a train derailed between the Federal Triangle and Smithsonian stations.

In 2004, two Metro trains collided at the Woodley Park/Zoo-Adams Morgan station, resulting in some minor injuries.

June 22, 2009 – Metro Crash

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:09:43 +0000

From WTOP.com

WASHINGTON – At least two people have died and several people are trapped and injured after a Metro Red Line train derailed and collided with another Metro train, officials say.

The six-car train derailed and then collided with another train between the Takoma Park and Fort Totten stations around 5 p.m. Monday.

The trains are “lodged on top of one another,” D.C. Fire and EMS spokesman Alan Etter says.

Crews are on the scene working to free several people who are trapped in the trains, Etter says.

“We have to make this car stable enough for firefighters to get people out of there,” Etter says.

The train was headed toward the Shady Grove station at the time of the accident, which occurred near the Maryland-D.C. border.

Etter tells WTOP rescue crews are setting up for the “possibility of a mass casualty event.”

All area hospitals have been advised to expect patients, Etter says.

Metro is advising that people avoid the Red Line for the rest of the day.

Trains are operating between Glenmont and Brookland and between Shady Grove and Brookland stations and from Glenmont to Takoma stations for the remainder of the day.

WTOP has a reporter en route to the scene and will have more information as it becomes available.

————-

From The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON — Authorities say a six-car train has collided with another train near the Washington and Maryland border, killing at least one person.

D.C. fire spokesman Alan Etter says at least one person was killed and that this is developing into a “mass casualty event.” He says crews are cutting apart the trains to get people out. He says there are severe injuries, but no indication how many.

Spokeswoman Taryn McNeil says the collision happened about 5 p.m. between the Fort Totten and Takoma Park stations on Metro’s red line. The collision happened during rush hour on the transit agency’s busiest rail line.

Officials said it was too early to determine what caused the crash.

Monday’s derailment comes more than two years after a subway train derailed near downtown Washington, sending 20 people to the hospital and prompting the rescue of 60 people from a tunnel.