[PRCo] Re: METRORAIL DISASTER

[Phillip Clark Campbell]

> From: Schneider Fred <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 8:12:24 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Fwd: METRORAIL DISASTER
> You don't just cough up a billion dollars you don't
> have to remove 300 cars from service, or simply
> remove them and put 100,000 more automobiles
> on the highways.  That's insanity.   The gentleman from
> Idaho needs to see the roads around Washington
> before even suggesting that.


Mr.Schneider;


This is a resend containing new information.

No one on this list suggested anything like this did they.  You have a tendency to rewrite information to suit your whims don't you  (as I have often mentioned, reading through the archives is very revealing.)  This specific item wasn't an issue until now was it;  the discussion centered around the definition of  'disaster.'  'Safety,'  the prime concern of transit agencies, is often on one of those double sided coins with an extremely thin edge in the middle;  'apathy'  is quite often on the other side of that coin.  A  'problem'  is often recognized and ignored until a disaster happens, ignored because of $$$.  Then it is too late isn't it.

--- --- ---

"If"  the report on the wmata website is  'true,'  then what you call  'insanity'  was already in progress when you wrote the above, wasn't it  --  the replacement of the  '1000-series  [Rohr]  rail cars'  (note especially the last 3-paragraphs:)
http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=2630

What you call  'insanity'  was information provided in the press releases;  no one on this PRC list made that assertion.  Incidentally,  that  'gentleman from Idaho'  is actually  'from'  the Pittsburgh area, isn't he.

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Observations on safety in transportation:

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Do you remember the Air Alaska disaster where a faulty jackscrew in the tail caused an inflight plane (from Mexico to N.California non-stop) to crash into the Pacific west of Los Angeles?  

Above I wrote:
""If"  the report on the wmata website is  'true,'..."
I wrote this purposely.  Reading  'a'  summary of the Air-Alaska disaster one sees Labor blaming management:

"Sixty-four mechanics at Alaska Airline's Seattle maintenance base
assert in a letter to John Kelly that they had been pressured,
threatened, and intimidated' into cutting corners on safety."

........while management retorts that Labor is upset about overtime:

"Three of the six incidents cited in the mechanics' letter involved John
Falla, the manager of base maintenance in Seattle, who was placed on
administrative leave. Falla's attorney would later tell The Seattle
Times that the allegations were spurred by mechanics' anger over
"reductions in overtime.""

What  'is'  the truth?  Do we or shall we ever  'really'  know the truth.  Nevertheless,  evidence strongly  'suggests'  that corners were cut on safety.       This is a very imperfect world;  such bad decisions or purposely negligent actions happen in all industry, private and public.

Now consider this quote  --  as I wrote above,  'apathy'  might be substituted for  'complacency:'

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"During the doomed aircraft's last heavy maintenance check in Oakland,
mechanics initially found those parts at their maximum allowable wear
tolerance and planned to replace them. But five more checks of wear
found the results within tolerance, so the parts weren't replaced. That
decision is now being cited in lawsuits filed against Alaska--and has
become a key factor in the controversy surrounding the airline's
maintenance practices. 

"Why squeeze every last service hour
out of a part when the consequences of failure are so catastrophic?"
demands Wagstaff, a private pilot with 34 years' flying experience.
"You can almost understand this flawed service philosophy from an underfunded, marginal bush operator, but certainly not from a major carrier. 

As Wagstaff sees it, Alaska Air got cocky. 
"Alaska beat the competition in its local Alaska market and then moved
South," he asserts. "Complacency is a real danger in aviation. Combine
complacency with a 'We're No. 1!' attitude and add what appears to be a
lack of a true safety culture and there then exists a formula for
disaster."

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Diary+of+a+Disaster-a066811888
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Then we have the recent Air France crash in the Atlantic.  External body sensors used to measure speed were known to freeze and cause false data results;  since the crash these sensors have been / are being replaced even though the actual  'cause'  of the accident is unknown.  It  'is'  credible to ask why this wasn't done before the accident isn't it.  What price safety?



Phil
Without  a   'coast'   but  not  a   'cause.'
--  --
"If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God,
and to do that, thou must be ruled by Him ...
Those who will not be governed by God...
........will be ruled by Tyrants."
William  Penn,  founder  of  Pennsylvania