(The following story by Joann Groff appeared on the Simi Valley Acorn website on October 23, 2009.)
AGOURA HILLS, Calif. — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has filed state and federal lawsuits in an effort to remove recently installed video surveillance systems from Metrolink trains.
The move to install the inwardfacing cameras was made almost immediately after a train collision in Chatsworth killed 25 people in September 2008. Cameras were powered on in all 52 Metrolink locomotives Oct. 12.
Keith Millhouse, vice chair of the Metrolink board and a Moorpark City Council member, said that though he expected the lawsuit, it’s still discouraging.
“We are going to vigorously fight this action in court,” Millhouse said. “The cameras are designed to prevent the type of conduct that came to light after Chatsworth, and passenger safety trumps any reasonable expectation of privacy. We’re disappointed, but we’re ready for battle.”
Metrolink train 111, en route to Simi Valley and Moorpark, collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train just after leaving the Chatsworth station on Sept. 12, 2008. The crash killed 25 people and injured more than 130 in the worst train wreck in Southern California in 50 years.
The Metrolink engineer, Robert Sanchez, reportedly missed three signals notifying him of another train on the tracks. Sanchez was allegedly text messaging on his cellphone at the time of the wreck.
Paul Sorrow, acting president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said the cameras are illegal.
“While cellphone use is alleged to have contributed to the fatal Metrolink collision . . . installing video cameras inside the locomotive cabs is an invasion of privacy,” Sorrow said. “In fact, video cameras in the cab are an ineffective deterrent to cellphone use, and there are far less intrusive and less expensive measures readily available that actually would prevent such use to accomplish Metrolink’s purported goal of improving safety.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who also sits on the Metrolink board, criticized the brotherhood.
“The union’s lawsuit to derail Metrolink’s efforts to prevent future tragedies is stupid and irresponsible,” Antonovich said.
In the weeks after the Chatsworth crash, the Metrolink board pushed for tougher safety regulations. That’s when the board took action to add a second engineer to trains operating on singletrack systems and also authorized inward-facing cameras.
Metrolink is the first railroad in the nation to have the cameras.
The union has suggested cellphone-jamming devices would be cheaper and more effective. The system would block incoming and outgoing calls and texts and would alert others of attempted cellphone use in the locomotive cab.
But Millhouse isn’t buying it.
“If they were really concerned about the expense, they would have filed before we purchased and installed the cameras,” he said. “And it’s a red herring argument because we’re concerned not only with cellphone use but (with) any potential misconduct.”
Engineer Sanchez also reportedly allowed young “rail enthusiasts” to ride in the cab with him and man the controls. Complete findings from the National Transportation Safety Board hearings have yet to be released.
On Oct. 16, the union filed complaints in the U.S. District Court for California’s Central Division and in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles. Named in the suits are Metrolink parent, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority and Metrolink, along with Veolia Transportation Inc., and its subsidiary, Connex Railroad LLC, which provides operating crews for Metrolink commuter rail service.
“Our goal is to protect the safety of the traveling public while also enforcing the contractual and privacy rights of our members,” Sorrow said. “We will work closely with federal and state rail regulators to permanently solve the problem as quickly as possible. We also hope that these lawsuits force Metrolink to operate constructively and within the law as a problem solver, rather than offering ineffective and expensive solutions.
“Instead of being driven by political expediency, Metrolink needs to consider a realistic solution to the problem that does not rely upon a huge waste of existing limited tax funds.”