Metro News Release

For immediate release: January 29, 2007

Comprehensive safety initiative aims to make Metro the safest transit property in the country

Metro General Manager John Catoe outlined a major safety initiative that aims to make Metro the safest transit agency in the country. The multi-year initiative will keenly focus all of Metro’s 10,000 employees on safety and call on the public for input as well. It will be the most comprehensive safety overhaul in the transit authority’s history and will impact Metrobus, Metrorail and MetroAccess service.

“I believe Metro is a safe system, but we have to be number one in safety because one accident is one too many,” said Catoe, who established a similar plan at the Los Angeles County Metro. “To get there, we need a greater emphasis on safety—from employees and our customers.”

Within 30-days, Metro intends to hire a contractor to conduct a thorough analysis of safety measures already in place, identify areas that need improvement, generate solutions in weak areas, initiate new safety measures and create a new safety training program for supervisors. The safety enhancements will augment Metro’s existing safety program and place a greater emphasis on system safety for customers and employees.

“Safety is the responsibility of every employee and you will hear this from every employee,” Catoe said. “Safety. Safety. Safety. It’s not just a slogan. It’s part of our corporate value system and is a key element of our service.”

Though specifics of the plan have not been established, elements of the plan are likely to include:

• Increasing the authority of Metro’s safety office. Safety officers will have the ability to stop an action if they deem it unsafe.


• Placing more responsibility and accountability on supervisors. Supervisors, including superintendents, assistant superintendents, operations supervisors, will be responsible for every employee on their watch.

• Initiating a comprehensive training program for supervisors.

• Conducting an aggressive public outreach campaign about system safety.

“Our customers provide millions of sets of eyes and ears. We want to make it easy for them to communicate with us and we want them to let us know what they think is unsafe so we can address their concerns,” Catoe said.

The comprehensive safety program also aims to generate cost savings for Metro through reduced time lost by injured employees, fewer workers’ compensation claims and increased productivity. Metro expects to begin to realize savings after six months.

News release issued at 12:00 am, January 29, 2007.