Norton Gets First Congressional Hearing on NTSB's Metro Report (09/14/2010)

Norton Gets First Congressional Hearing on NTSB's Metro Report

September 14, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that, at her request, the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia Subcommittee will hold the first congressional hearing on the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB's) report on the June 22, 2009, Metro Red Line train collision that killed nine people and injured dozens of others. The hearing, entitled "Moving Forward After the NTSB Report: Making Metro a Safety Leader," will take place on Thursday, September 23, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. in room 2203 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Witnesses include: NTSB Chair Deborah A. P. Hersman; Metro Interim General Manager Richard Sarles; Metro Board First Vice Chair Catherine Hudgins; Tri-state Oversight Committee Chair Matthew Bassett; Riders' Advisory Council ChairFrancis DeBernardo; and Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 689, Safety Officer and Recording Secretary Anthony W. Garland.

The NTSB report found that track circuit defects and Metro's failure to maintain and monitor the track circuit system chiefly contributed to last year's collision. Norton has taken particular note of NTSB's recommendation that the Federal Transit Administration should develop non-punitive safety reporting programs for all transit agencies. She said that the non-punitive reporting programs, which other transportation forms already have, are necessary to ensure the new safety culture at Metro, recommended by NTSB.

Norton, who lost seven constituents in the Metro tragedy and has taken the lead on Metro, said she was particularly grateful to Representative Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA), chair of the subcommittee, for pressing reform in the several hearings the subcommittee and full committee have had since the June 2009 crash. Norton's amendment to the NTSB Reauthorization Act of 2010, which passed out of committee earlier this year, would clarify that the NTSB can and should offer interim safety recommendations, even when more extensive and costly measures are also recommended and necessary. After each recent Metro accident, the NTSB had recommended to Metro that it replace or retrofit its old, 1970s era, 1,000 series cars, even though it was clear to all that Metro did not have funds for new, more crashworthy cars. The Congresswoman is also an original cosponsor of a bill, the National Metro Safety Act, for national safety standards for subways. Norton named her bill to authorize the D.C. National Guard Tuition Assistance program in honor of Major General David Wherley Jr., who, along with his wife, Ann, died in the June 2009 crash.