The death of Michael Jackson has lead to a few important stories getting placed on the back burner. Today I’m going to try to cover at least two of those stories (maybe more) that should be getting major coverage. The first up is the results of an investigation into the crash on the Washington D.C. Metro Red Line that occurred last Monday. Nine people died in that crash and countless others were injured. Well, apparently last Wednesday Transportation investigators discovered “anomalies” in an essential control circuit of the track where the crash occurred. Anomalies? What’s that? Just a nice way of saying the shit doesn’t work the way its suppose to? But its worse than that. There are several things that pop into my head when reading this story and now make me want to think twice, three times or even a fourth before I step foot on another Metro train:
1. Apparently the trains “run on automatic” during rush hour. I’m assuming people that make decisions like this have never seen the countless number of movies out that show horrible scenarios that can occur when you remove a human being from this equation. Common sense tells me that while the trains might move automatically, I think that should be the back up system when it comes to braking, not the other way around. Electronics fail all the time. And as I’ll point out later, there’s no real regulation going on with these tracks. So, only a complete moron would have the lives of thousands of people, during the busiest times of the day be in the hands of a circuit board.
2. The second problem I have, which I’ve already alluded to, is that there apparently is no regulation going on.
The NTSB recommended in 2006 that Metro transit replace or retrofit all of its Series 1000 trains, to bring them up to current safety standards.
Metro transit responded that because it was constrained by tax-advantage leases, it intended to keep the 1000 Series until the end of 2014.
“Our recommendation was not addressed, so it [the case] has been closed in an unacceptable status,” Hersman said.
The NTSB has no regulatory powers and can’t force implementation.
I’m sorry but the only appropriate response to this is WHAT THE FUCK??? Now to be fair, the lead-in trains in last Monday’s accident were newer models and the issue wasn’t really with the train itself. But if Series 1000 cars still make up a QUARTER of Metro Transits cars and they ignored what the NTSB recommended, one can only imagine what other fuckery is going on.
This represents a larger issue in our country. Remember back when we were talking about the Stimulus Bill and all these Republicans and talking heads were bitching about pork barrel spending and how we need to cut costs? This is what cutting costs gets you. Mind you, I remember when metro raised its fees (I believe it was last year) to something astronomical. Then on top of that, they increased the fee to park. So what that means is, Federal, State and Local government cut any funding for public transportation, endangering our lives AND WMATA still raised the cost to ride so we got dicked twice. Let me point this out one more time:
The NTSB has no regulatory powers and can’t force implementation.
This is like saying your local Fire Department and Firefighers can identify a fire, make recommendations on how to put it out…but aren’t allowed to actually get the hoses out and handle it.
NTSB: “Yeah, your trains are going to kill someone if you don’t make this changes”
WMATA: “Go fuck yourself”
NTSB: “Yes sir”
