Rail safety and the human error excuse

The MTA is employing the same mind-set, organizational culture and safety practices that were used in the design and operations of its other lines in the building of the Exposition light rail on Exposition Boulevard. Once completed, it will connect Culver City to downtown, intersecting major, busy streets such as Western and Crenshaw. It will pass Foshay Learning Center and Dorsey High School, which have 3,400 and 2,100 students, respectively. The grade crossings adjacent to these schools will expose students to serious risk.

Despite a genuine interest in protecting public safety and a dedicated safety staff, neither Metrolink nor the MTA has been successful at addressing rail safety. They should be required to find out exactly how effectively their warning signs, signals and pedestrian systems are understood and complied with by diverse groups of people under a variety of conditions. And such studies and findings should be independently verified.

We need an overall shift in how we deal with rail design, construction, operation and regulatory oversight. We need to improve the safety culture of this industry and address human and organizational factors.

Unfortunately, the current regulatory, oversight and operational structure for ensuring rail safety in California is not working. It is diffused among many entities, such as the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, the California Public Utilities Commission, operating companies, transit agencies, rail construction authorities and municipalities/cities.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should establish and empower a commission to address the fundamental problem of rail safety. This commission should analyze all available previous accident investigations, evaluate the implementation of past recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board, study all the existing crossings and redesign all crossings and warning signs and signals based on technical and state-of-the-art human factors.

Many improvements are simple. After a deadly 2003 Metrolink crash and derailment in Burbank, the NTSB made two inexpensive recommendations: Keep a left-turn arrow red instead of flashing; extend a raised median another 25 feet. If this last recommendation had been put into effect, a death three years later would have been avoided.

Other improvements will be expensive, such as adding "positive train control" on railroad tracks, which can override mistakes by human operators and has been on the NTSB's most-wanted list for years.

Whatever the cost of these changes, it would be worth it, when you consider the high economic cost of settling lawsuits and making repairs, and the intangible enormity of so many people killed or maimed.