Metro News Release

For immediate release: May 16, 2006

Metro, union team to improve employee safety

Metro officials and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents about 7,000 of Metro’s 10,000 employees, are partnering to conduct a comprehensive review of employee safety and make any needed changes to make the transit authority a safer place to work.

Two Metro track workers have been struck and killed by trains within the last seven months, prompting Metro management and Union leadership to join together to seek best practices in the area of safety from industry leaders. Officials are not just looking within the transit field to pull together safety standards, but they will be looking outside the transit arena at other high risk fields, including the military.

Sunday, May 14, Jong Won Lee, 49, who was an automatic train control technician, was struck and killed by a train on May 14. Seven months earlier, in October 2005, Michael Waldron, 47, a track and structures employee, was also struck and killed by a Metrorail train.

"We need to do everything in our power to work together with the Union to make sure that this never happens again," Metro Interim General Manager Dan Tangherlini said of the deaths. "We owe it to the families of Mr. Lee, Mr. Waldron and all of our other employees to make this the safest workplace that we possibly can."

Fred Goodine, Metro’s Assistant General Manager for Safety and Risk Protection, and Steve Feil, Metro’s Chief Operating Officer for Rail, "will work closely with Local 689 to make recommendations on how to make one of the safest transit systems in the country even safer," Mr. Goodine said.

"We are glad that Mr. Tangherlini is taking our concerns seriously, and we are looking forward to entering into a joint partnership to improve safety for our 7,000 employees." said Mike Golash, President of ATU Local 689.

Last Month the Metro Board authorized Metro management to work with the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) to call for expert reviews of best practices on ongoing operations matters. This safety review will be the first review under the new agreement with APTA. Last month Mr. Tangherlini explained that "the ability to obtain needed expertise is vital to the success of our daily operations."

News release issued on May 16, 2006.