A workplace culture that valued speed over safety contributed to two Metro train accidents that killed three employees in 2006, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday in a meeting that laid bare the glaring flaws in the transit agency’s safety procedures.
Before a train running 40 mph hit and killed senior rail mechanic Jong Won Lee at the Dupont Circle station in May 2006, Metro had no policy requiring train operators to slow down when they approached work areas, the NTSB investigation found.
“Keeping the trains on time seemed to be more important, and other areas seemed to be sacrificed to keep the trains running,” Ruben Payan, the investigator in charge, told the Metro board of directors and a room full of people that included the wife of a Metro worker killed in 2005.
Lee likely failed to stand clear of the southbound train that killed him because he had been focused on avoiding a northbound train moments before, Payan said.
Metro changed its rules after the incident to require trains to slow to 35 mph when approaching work zones and to 10 mph when an operator spots a worker, but the rule didn’t apply to walking track inspectors.
Just six months later, two walking track inspectors were killed by a Yellow Line train traveling 35 mph near the Eisenhower Avenue station.
NTSB found that the inspectors didn’t keep a proper lookout for trains and that while train operator Lynette Harris saw the workers, she failed to slow or stop thetrain until she could be sure they were in a safe area.
She also failed to ask for permission to leave the Huntington station and may have been talking on her cell phone shortly before the accident, in violation of Metro rules, Payan said.
Harris is no longer in the operations department but is still a Metro employee.
Board members blasted Metro for failing to properly alert drivers about where work areas were and for repeatedly failing to enforce its own safety rules, but acknowledged that many of the problems were fixed when Metro’s new general manager, John Catoe, came on the scene in 2007.
“We’ve made more than a dozen improvements to our procedures to help prevent this from happening again,” Catoe said.
NTSB agreed that Metro has made strides, but still has to work to do.
Metro averaged 1.5 worker deaths a year between 2001 and 2006 and was the only major transit agency in the nation with worker fatalities in 2006.
Safety first
Some of the safety procedures adopted by Metro after the accidents:
» Tracks are inspected only during off-peak travel times when fewer trains are on the tracks.
» Safety officers conduct “safety blitzes” at work sites to ensure employees are aware of and are following safety rules — an effort Metro will soon accelerate, officials said.
» Track inspectors must contact the control center when they move locations and the control center must inform train operators in the area.
» Train operators must put their trains in manual mode two stations before arriving at a work site and must travel at speeds no faster than 35 mph.
