A Metrorail operator will reportedly receive “refresher training” after a clip surfaced on YouTube earlier this week showing the driver speaking with a rider through the door while operating a Yellow Line train. NBCWashington first reported on the clip on Monday.
The video shows a person sitting on the bench seats adjacent to the door where operators enter to access the train’s controls — the individual’s head is inside the cabin, and though it is nearly impossible to hear what the two are talking about, it’s obvious that there is a conversation occurring. Metro spokesman Reggie Woodruff tells Examiner reporter Kytja Weir that the transit agency “immediately followed up with our employee to address what appears to be an incident in which an operator is distracted,” and would be looking further into what happened. It was not immediately clear if the operator knew the rider or not.
It’s hardly the first time that a rider has recorded a distracted Metro operator — in 2009, a Metrorail operator was suspended for five days after being filmed texting while behind the controls of a Blue Line train. That incident, along with several others, led Metro to institute a strict policy by which operators using a phone while operating a Metrorail train would immediately be fired. Obviously, engaging in a conversation with a rider through an open cabin door is similarly discouraged.