WMATA’s Latest Black Eye: Half of Safety Inspection Team Disciplined Following Derailment
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The agency that operates the D.C. Metrorail system took major personnel action, including firing six employees, as part of an ongoing investigation into a July 29 derailment.
The woes and whoas continue at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the troubled agency that has been trying to pull the D.C.-area Metrorail system out of a fiscal and maintenance “death spiral” all the while dealing with an ongoing crisis of multi-jurisdictional governance, declining public trust and continued questions into its safety record.
On Thursday, the agency announced that it had disciplined 28 employees as part of its ongoing investigation into a July 29 derailment of a Silver Line train near the East Falls Church station in Arlington County, Virginia, which led to some minor injuries and major delays across the rail system.
The National Transportation Safety Board, in its inquiry of the incident, said that “ineffective inspection and maintenance practices and inadequate safety oversight” led to the derailment.
So far, six employees have been fired, including three supervisors, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Other terminations, suspensions and disciplinary actions are pending.
WMATA’s CEO and general manager, Paul Wiedefeld, said during Thursday’s Board of Directors meeting that an internal review had found that some track inspection records had been falsified.
According to Wiedefeld’s statement:
I want the Board [of Directors], our employees and our customers to know that this review revealed a disturbing level of indifference, lack of accountability, and flagrant misconduct in a portion of Metro’s track department which is completely intolerable. Further, it is reprehensible that any supervisor or mid-level manager would tolerate or encourage this behavior, or seek to retaliate against those who objected. It is also entirely unacceptable to me that any employee went along with this activity, rather than exercise a safety challenge, or any of the multiple avenues available to protect themselves, their coworkers, and the riding public.
In all, the disciplinary actions have impacted roughly half of WMATA’s 60-person track safety inspection team, according to WAMU News:
No one has been charged with a crime, even though transit police and independent investigators have been involved in the case since the summer. However, the case has been referred to prosecutors, Wiedefeld said, and it is unclear how long their review will last.
The general manager called the inspectors’ failings “completely intolerable,” adding that “it is reprehensible that any supervisor or mid-level manager would tolerate or encourage this behavior, or seek to retaliate against those who objected.”
Following numerous rail safety incidents in recent years, WMATA has been no stranger to federal scrutiny of its workplace culture.
During a public meeting in May, NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said, according to The Post: “Quite simply, they have not been willing to learn from prior events. Learning disabilities are tragic in children, but they are fatal in organizations.”
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive's Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.
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