(The following story by Lisa Rein and James Hohmann appeared on the Washington Post website on August 11, 2009.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Metro ordered mandatory safety training for field workers and suspended some planned maintenance work Monday after a track repairman was struck and killed Sunday night by a machine spreading gravel on the Orange Line.
Metro will also increase inspections at work sites across the system, Metro officials said, as they confronted the second fatal accident in seven weeks.
“Something obviously went terribly wrong,” Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. said after announcing the “safety stand-down.”
The accident Sunday occurred at a time of heightened concern about safety on the rail system, after nine people died and 80 were injured in a crash June 22 on the Red Line. Federal investigators are examining problems with track circuits as a possible cause of the crash.
Metro officials identified the victim of Sunday’s accident as Michael Nash, 63, of Silver Spring, a track repairman since 1990. Nash was working with 10 to 15 people replacing crossties along the outbound track between the Vienna and Dunn Loring stations along Interstate 66 when a machine called a ballast regulator struck him about 9:50 p.m. Nash was a spotter, whose job is to remove gravel from circuits or boards in the track bed.
The machine, which resembles a small truck, rides the rails to spread stones to fill in the track bed. Once the stones are down, workers can lay crossties between the rails. The ballast provides drainage and stability.
Metro officials said they had not determined what caused the accident. The operator of the ballast regulator had a trainee in the cab with him, but the trainee was not operating the equipment, Catoe said. The ballast regulator was moving at 5 to 10 mph, he said.
“The equipment was working fine,” Catoe said during a news conference Monday afternoon. He said the driver had no safety violations.
Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said the crew at the site underwent drug and alcohol testing early Monday. Nash was about halfway through a 10-hour shift when he was killed, officials said.
“Was there something that distracted our employee, or what?” Catoe said. “Again, we’re not sure until we’ve conducted our investigation.”
In addition to the mandatory safety training, Metro announced that it would review all safety policies and increase the number of “safety checks” during maintenance work. Executives began holding safety meetings with employees Monday night and planned to continue them throughout the week.
Orange Line trains had been operating on a single track between the West Falls Church and Vienna stations over the weekend to accommodate the repair project.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which has been focusing on track circuits in the June 22 crash, will not investigate Sunday’s accident. “It does not involve issues of train protection or crewmember protection from trains, so we’re not going to get into it,” spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz said.
But the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, the state’s equivalent of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is investigating. “We haven’t spoken to all the people we’d like to speak with,” said Paul Schilinski, regional director for the Virginia agency.
Neighbors said Nash, who grew roses in front of his townhouse, was quiet and reserved. “He was a very nice guy, very respectable,” said Richard Adams Sr., who lives across the street.
Orange Line service was back on schedule Monday morning, with no major delays. The track work was one of many maintenance projects that Metro had scheduled this month. Weekend track work is routine, but the agency also kicked off long-planned work on the Yellow, Blue and Red Lines.
The transit agency is rethinking its maintenance plan, officials said. They suspended work related to crossties and any maintenance similar to what was being done Sunday night, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. Work on track circuits near the Red Line accident site between the Fort Totten and Takoma stations will continue.
Metro, the busiest subway system in the country after New York City’s, is strained under the pressure of increased ridership and aging tracks, rail cars, platforms and other infrastructure. Metro has said it needs more than $7 billion for capital projects over the next 10 years to offer safe and reliable service. Riders and safety experts have questioned whether Metro can adequately oversee the work.
Peter Benjamin, the first vice chairman of the Metro Board, said that “safety has got to be our number one priority. When this happens, on top of everything else, we get even more concerned.”
Taubenkibel said the last stand-down was ordered in May 2006 after an employee working on track equipment at Dupont Circle was killed. Metro announced “safety blitzes,” he said, in which work sites received extra inspections.
Metro’s maintenance needs have become so pressing, Benjamin said, that routine tasks such as weekend work are being done when trains are running rather than when the system is down. Benjamin defended the transit system’s safety record.
“When you’re working with heavy equipment, even with the best safety precautions in place, it’s always possible that someone has a momentary lapse and you have an accident like this,” he said.
Between October 2005 and November 2006, four Metro employees were killed when they were struck by Metro trains in three accidents.
The latest incidents have left riders concerned about the system’s vulnerability. “The maintenance has been slipshod at best,” said Mike Fonte, a 68-year-old foreign policy consultant from Silver Spring and frequent Red Line rider. “Part of that’s a function of budgetary issues, but that doesn’t seem like all of it. [It’s] a big system, an awful lot of moving parts, and it doesn’t seem like Mr. Catoe and friends are functioning effectively to keep the big view and fix the little things in front of them.”
Brittany Keyona, 20, of Bowie said she has been riding Metrorail about twice a week since she was 13. She said Metro has a lot to deal with in the wake of the two accidents but is confident that safety will improve. “They’ve got a lot on their plate,” she said. “But I think they’ll get it together, slowly but surely.” She said that since the accident in June, she has stopped riding in front or rear railcars.
“I won’t get on the Red Line at all,” she said. “I’m scared. That’s really the only reason I can give.”