DC Metro union blames ‘woefully neglected’ safety culture for smoke

The union that represents employees of the Washington, D.C. Metrorail subway system said Monday that the capital area transit agency has “woefully neglected its commitment to a safety culture” after a fatal incident on the agency’s Yellow Line earlier this month.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has come under criticism since an electrical issue on its Yellow Line on Jan. 12 resulted in passengers being trapped underground in a smoke-filled train that was heading toward northern Virginia for more than a half-hour.

The incident resulted in Metro’s first passenger fatality since a high-profile crash on the Red Line in 2009 that killed nine people and was supposed to have prompted widespread changes at the capital-area transit agency.

{mosads}Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 President Jackie Jeter said Monday that the latest accident showed the Metro system still has a long way to go to boost the safety of its trains and buses.  

“The deadly smoke incident at L’Enfant Plaza Metro station on January 12, 2015 shook the entire DMV region. It has also exposed that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has woefully neglected its commitment to a safety culture that can save the lives of riders and workers,” Jeter wrote in a blog post on the union’s website. 

“The cornerstone of a safety culture for Metro should be an environment where Metro employees feel empowered and welcome to identify accidents and potential hazards,” Jeter continued.  “WMATA leadership continues to fail miserably at cultivating this environment.” 

Metro officials have declined to comment on the smoke incident, citing an ongoing investigation that is being conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). 

The agency announced a series of revisions to its emergency procedures last week that were enacted after the incident. 

Lawmakers who represent congressional districts around the metropolitan Washington area have also taken the transit agency to task since the smoke incident, saying that the agency’s response to the emergency situation was “unacceptable.” 

“It has become clear that communication failures were a key factor in the delay in rescuing passengers from the stopped, smoke-filled train in last week’s Yellow Line incident,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said in a statement last Wednesday after receiving an update on the NTSB investigation into the incident. 

“And it is also clear that the overall response to the fatal incident is unacceptable,” Connolly continued. “Changes must be made and made quickly. We must restore public confidence in the Metro system and be able to assure hundreds of thousands of daily Metro riders that their safety is the top priority.” 

Jeter said the agency “has failed to invest in the emergency training that all employees need on a consistent basis” since the 2009 Red Line crash. 

“Instead, our members, who are the operators, maintenance and clerical employees of WMATA, have been discouraged from reporting unsafe conditions and even suspended,” Jeter wrote.  “Management seems to feel the need to discipline rather than instruct, guide and support.  But, management will never be able to discipline its way to a safety culture.  The fact that any employee should fear how management might react if an employee makes a report on a safety concern is unacceptable and dangerous.”