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Hoo, boy -- if you thought that it had already been a laborious weekend for Metro, you ain't seen nothing yet. WMATA isn't taking too kindly to the Post's big report this morning, an expose about the previous failures of Metrorail's much-maligned crash avoidance system. The Post's report leads with a terrifying story about a 2005 incident in which not two, but three trains' avoidance systems failed, and gut feelings were the only thing separating Metro from having a three-train, rush hour pileup between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom, underneath the Potomac River:
The train's crash avoidance system indicated that the track ahead was clear, but Mitchell sensed danger in the distance. He decided to override the system and brake manually -- then watched helplessly as his train rolled to a stop just 35 feet short of a train ahead. As a shaken Mitchell radioed Metro supervisors, he was interrupted by the operator of the train behind him, who announced that he had just caught sight of Mitchell's train and hit his emergency brake. "You could hear the panic in his voice," Mitchell said. That train ground to a halt 20 feet short of Mitchell's.
A terribly frightening story -- and one of the few parts of the report which WMATA doesn't appear have a "correction" for. The transit agency, though, did have a sizable, bullet-pointed response to the rest of the story this morning [PDF], outlining their clarifications and commentary. The largest contention in that document argues that the Post's claim that "After the 2005 incident, Metro's safety office made six recommendations aimed at avoiding a recurrence. By the time of this summer's crash, records show, none had been formally implemented and approved by the Tri-State Oversight Committee, which monitors Metro safety" is blatantly false, and provides explanations as to the quote-unquote resolution of all six.
The oversight committee, though, told the Post that they have "no evidence that Metro had put the recommendations into practice."
Would a more thorough examination of the 2005 incident in question have helped to prevent this spring's accident which killed nine? It's a matter of he said, she said at this point -- either way, both the Post report and Metro's response are must-reads.
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The biggest issue to come out of this crash, in my mind, is that Metro relies on a safety system with multiple single points of failure. Failure in any one of which could result in a horrific crash. While we're focused on the Post's "zomg, metro didn't test the modules" we're living with a dangerously designed system.
What bink said.
I'd prefer a potentially faulty system of vehicle control over no system of vehicle control... No system is flawless by any means... your options are these:
1) be frightened by the marketing team at the Post who are desperately trying to sell papers; start driving a car, riding a cab, or making bus trips; denying that you've actually increased your chances of danger with the naive sense of false security you've built for yourself...
- OR -
2) accept the inevitable and inherit risk of LIVING and take the system which is safer, more economical, and better for the enviornment; remembering that risk is part of the game of life and your chances are still better on the Metro than in a car!
These kinds of Post pieces are so routine I almost don't read them anymore, but I read this one this morning and it honestly gave me chills.
Its unfortunate that it was released during a holiday weekend during what would seem like a slow news cycle.
A 3 train pile up under the Potomac river is not something I want to think about.
The article itself cited the metro spokesman as indicating that metro made the corrections. I guess the Post can claim that the recommendations were not "formally" implemented, in that the oversight committee was not made aware of them, but that's a pretty flimsy basis on which to base an A1 article. That there was an electrical short circuit in the cables that led to the 2005 near-miss is indeed scary, but the Post's insinuations that the metro hadn't done anything about it or that it was related to the June crash are more something I'd expect from a rag like the Examiner.
C'mon! Cut them some slack! This happened in 2005 which is, like, a zillion years ago. They so totally improved the safety system since then by using, like, computers and stuff. Computers will totally save everybody's life unless the computer is, like, HAL or Skynet or that big f**king robot from Robocop that kept saying, "You have three seconds to comply!" They should hire THAT robot to run the Metro safety system! That would be awesome!
What can I say?! It's a slow news month and apparently H1N1, the terror in the middle east, and the horrors of a president indocrinating youth with socialist ideologies isn't terrifying enough to sell papers any more. So what does the Post (and a few other cheap papers) do? Take a few pop shots at Metro! Yes terror on the rails is the new sales pitch these days...
The post has basically been searching through reports publicly availiable to any idiot with a web browser and internet access... and has then turned them into sensationalist headline-worthy scare stories. Much like Fox and their "shocking reports", these stories are not even worth wiping your @$$ with!!!
Even if Metro had a train pile up EVERYDAY that would still be less accidents by volume than all the poor suckers who drive automotibles each day! The system is safe and generally reliable when compared objectively with other modes of transportation and even when compared objectively with other mass transit systems.
The Post has become little more than a tabloid and I suggest anyone reading it approach the stories with the same skepticism you would with the National Inquirer... Shame on the Post! Give these people a break! They're doing the best they can with what little resources they're given--if anyone is to blame its all of us for not working harder to push our politicians to do something to get dedicated and sufficient funding for the system!
Final Destination V: Red Line...TO HELL!
Arriving Summer 2010
WMATA passengers are advised that we are experiencing maintenance issues on the Red Line to Hell, affecting White Flint, Rockville, Shady Grove, and the City of Dis. Passengers should expect delays of up to one lifetime. Thank you for riding Metro, and have a pleasant afterlife.