By Jonetta Rose Barras
EXAMINER COLUMNIST
Last Monday, I wrote in this space that poor management — not insufficient funding — was the prime cause of the Metro Red Line crash. Three days later, the public learned that while maintenance had been performed on the track near the accident site, the circuitry malfunctioned. What’s worse, the problem registered at the central command center and could be identified on backup computerized data. But no one at Metro caught it, until investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived. (What’s the purpose of backup data if it isn’t reviewed regularly?)
Someone should be fired.
General Manager John Catoe is paid big bucks for a reason. But rather than ridding his operation of incompetent or inattentive managers, or appropriately prioritizing spending to increase rider safety, this past week he followed the standard crisis manual; it instructs corporate leaders to downplay the magnitude of a problem, act confused about who’s responsible, quickly try to return things to normal and give customers the impression the organization is in better shape than before.
Wasn’t it brilliant the way Catoe announced at the news conference about the failed circuitry that the Smithsonian station of the Metro system would be opened for the July Fourth festivities? A day later, he reported that trains would be back to normal speed.
Doors closing — please ignore the crash.
The public shouldn’t permit Catoe, other Metro managers and the corporate board to just walk away, after applying Band-Aid solutions and offering incomprehensible excuses.
Catoe continues to assert that cars in the 1000 series are “safe.” They aren’t. NTSB investigators warned the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority about the cars in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Catoe says all track circuits are fine. They aren’t. Jackie Jeter, president of the transit workers Local 689, told me during an interview last week on WPFW radio that many of her members reported problems like that witnessed on the Red Line track.
“I’ve been told about the same [sort of failures] that happened with [Jeanice] McMillan,” Jeter said. “If there were no train sitting there, we would not have heard about that problem.”
Jeter said she asked to meet with Catoe, but he has not responded, although one of her members died and thousands of others — drivers and riders — still may be in jeopardy of injury. She is worried that Metro officials “will be lulled to sleep,” as they apparently were after the last crash when they were warned about the insufficiency of antiquated rail cars and computerized operations.
Perhaps if NTSB had the power to compel the implementation of its recommendations or at the very least force transportation organizations, including WMATA, to negotiate an acceptable timetable for implementation, then the region wouldn’t have witnessed the horrific accident it did last month.
NTSB investigators can warn until they’re blue in the face. Catoe, his managers and WMATA’s irresponsible board will simply ignore those warnings. Congress may want to alter that dynamic.
Jonetta Rose Barras, host of WPFW’s “D.C. Politics With Jonetta,” can be reached at [email protected].
