WASHINGTON 鈥擳he National Transportation Safety Board has diagnosed Metro’s continuing聽failed inspections and maintenance issues as “the failure of WMATA senior management to proactively assess and mitigate foreseeable safety risks,” resulting in聽Carol Glover鈥檚 death after she sat on a smoke-filled Metro train for more than 30 minutes last year.
So who are those senior managers? And do they still work for Metro?
Current Metro board chairman and D.C. Councilman Jack Evans wishes the safety board had identified specific individuals in the findings and probable cause beyond the .
鈥淭hey blamed Metro. Metro is nothing. Metro鈥檚 an organization. It鈥檚 an institution. There鈥檚 no — as I鈥檝e heard said many times — there鈥檚 no Mr. and Mrs. Metro,鈥� Evans said in an interview.
鈥淲hen I go over there, there鈥檚 not a guy behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz.”
鈥淚 think it includes everybody,鈥� Metro board member Mort Downey told reporters after the NTSB vote this week. 鈥淏ut I think it also speaks to a system in which at least the board does not have the information and can鈥檛 develop the information except by relying on management.”
While the man in charge of Metro鈥檚 operations ahead of a broad reorganization under new General Manager Paul Wiedefeld, many others on staff remain in place.
4-0 probable cause approved with zero discussion
鈥� Max Smith (@amaxsmith)
Evans said that, the problems could have been with Metro鈥檚 previous general managers, board members or chairmen, safety leaders or any number of others.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know who they鈥檙e talking about, and they didn鈥檛 name names, and I think that鈥檚 a mistake. I think you cannot hold people accountable unless you identify who they are,鈥� Evans said.
鈥淭o hold Metro accountable is meaningless. There is no Metro. There are people who run Metro.”
Metro’s new general manager came in聽last January. Wiedefeld joined the organization last fall after a long, halting selection process. He just announced new, major that will include station shutdowns at rush hour and lengthy single-tracking.
Metro also has a officially .
Former聽General Manager Richard Sarles retired as planned around the time of the deadly L’Enfant Plaza smoke — after joining Metro following the fatal 2009 Red Line crash near Fort Totten — and established a聽laborious聽track work program.
Downey, who was board chairman last year but , helped lead the search that eventually led to Wiedefeld.
鈥淸Sarles] made a lot of good things happen,”聽Downey said. “I would not classify it as a failure, but I would say it didn鈥檛 get us to where we needed to be.鈥�
As part of that organization, Wiedefeld set up an internal auditing group that will report to him on whether policies are actually being followed.
The that even good, standard operating procedures Metro had in place were commonly ignored leading up to the deadly smoke near L鈥橢nfant Plaza.
