(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Eli Segall on April 8, 2009.)
NEWARK, N.J. — NJ Transit will soon help its employees blow the whistle on safety lapses.
Under a pilot program, transit workers can anonymously report near accidents or other “close calls.” The reports would then be analyzed by a range of railroad officials, with the hope of preventing such mishaps in the future.
NJ Transit Executive Director Richard Sarles briefly outlined the program at an agency meeting Wednesday. Lynn Bowersox, an agency spokeswoman, said it should start sometime in the next three months.
Sarles said the agency is not adopting the plan in response to a particular incident but because it will improve safety by collecting data that might otherwise go unreported.
One example of a close call is a conductor opening the doors on the wrong side of the train at a station, but no one steps out and gets hurt, said Pat Reilly, general chairman of United Transportation Union Local 60, which represents 1,200 NJ Transit conductors and assistant conductors.
Under the pilot program, only employees directly involved in the incident can report it, Reilly said. After calling a hot line, they must also fill out a detailed report and be interviewed by federal transit officials.
Federal officials will keep their names off the incident reports sent to NJ Transit, so nobody there finds out who reported the problem.
The program is a joint effort by NJ Transit, the Federal Railroad Administration and four unions representing NJ Transit workers, Reilly said.
The program, which is voluntary, is not a new concept. The airline industry has had a similar one for years. A pair of freight railroad companies, Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific Railway, also have it in certain service areas, according to state and union officials.
“The bottom line is if you had an accident or a near miss, you don’t want it to happen again,” Reilly said.