Metro News Release
For immediate release: August 10, 2009
Metro announces "Safety Stand Down" following employee fatality
Metro to suspend some track maintenance, increase safety checks at work sites
Metro officials will conduct a four-day comprehensive Safety Stand Down with its track maintenance personnel this week, postpone tie replacement work, conduct increased inspections at work sites, and assign additional quality assurance inspectors to Metro’s Safety Office following August 9 fatal employee accident near the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metrorail station.
“Last night we suffered a tragic loss of life of a fellow employee,” said Metro General Manager John Catoe. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”
The 21-year veteran employee died while conducting track maintenance along the Orange Line Sunday. The employee had been a Metro track repairman since 1990. His identify will be made public when next of kin has been notified.
“This week, we are going to take a comprehensive look at our safety policies and procedures involving our track maintenance personnel,” Catoe said. “I have asked our Safety, and Track and Structures departments to conduct a system-wide Safety Stand Down to review our work rules and procedures, and conduct refresher training on safety procedures for all employees. We must do everything we can to protect the lives of our employees.”
Video clip of Metrorail Ballast Regulator
The Safety Stand Down will include the following:
1. This week’s scheduled tie replacement work will be postponed. However, Metro will continue with the planned closure of the Red Line between the Brookland-CUA and Takoma Metrorail stations to make track circuit repairs.
2. Refresher training on all safety procedures will be mandatory for all employees who work in the field.
3. Metro managers will meet and review all safety procedures with their employees and follow up as necessary. Those meetings will start tonight and include members of the executive leadership team, and continue through the week.
4. Metro officials will increase the number of safety checks at all track maintenance work sites on all shifts.
5. Additional quality assurance personnel will be assigned to Metro’s Safety Department to assist with conducting comprehensive safety checks throughout the rail system.
Metro is conducting an internal investigation, and notified the National Transportation Safety Board and Tri-State Oversight Committee last evening. Metro has the lead in the investigation.
The track employee was working along the outbound Orange Line track when he was struck by a ballast regulator at about 9:50 p.m., halfway between the Dunn Loring-Merrifield and Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metrorail stations. A ballast regulator is a track unit that deposits and spreads ballast onto the track bed. Ballast is the material such as gravel and broken stone that sits between the cross-ties and tracks that helps keep the cross-ties and track stable.
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| Ballast regulator unit |
Approximately 10 to 15 employees were part of the veteran crew that had been working at the time of the accident. The cross-tie replacement project began at 8 p.m. on Friday, August 7, and was scheduled to be complete prior to Metro’s August 10 opening at 5 a.m. Trains had been single-tracking, or sharing one track, between the Vienna and West Falls Church Metrorail stations throughout the weekend to allow the work to take place.
Metro halted all Orange Line service between the West Falls Church-VT/UVA and Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metrorail stations immediately after the accident and provided two shuttle buses that accommodated 235 riders between the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU, Dunn Loring-Merrifield and West Falls Church/VT-UVA Metorail stations to get rail customers to their destinations. The rail system closes at midnight on Sunday nights, but the shuttle buses operated until at least 1 a.m.
The last track maintenance employee fatalities occurred in November 2006, when two track walkers were struck by a non-revenue train outside the Eisenhower Avenue Metrorail station on the Yellow Line. In May 2006, an automatic train control technician was struck and killed by a Red Line train at the Dupont Circle Metrorail station.
Media contact for this news release: Lisa Farbstein or Steven Taubenkibel at 202-962-1051.
For all other inquiries, please call customer service at 202-637-7000.
News release issued at 3:51 pm, August 10, 2009.