Thread by @STATter911

(1) The discussion following today's @MetrorailSafety report about the Feb. 4 L'Enfant Plaza smoke incident was particularly interesting. Chairman Christopher Hart noticed something that caught my attention when I first reported this story. bit.ly/3ksQseM (more)

(2) @wmata's ROCC controller never said "smoke" when sending a train with passengers to do a track inspection, even though smoke was the obvious problem. Acknowledging smoke or fire would have meant stopping rail traffic & emptying the inspection train of passengers. (more)

(3) LISTEN: You'll also hear that instead of telling the various supervisors what was going on via the radio, the controller asked each one to call ROCC by phone. But again, no mention of the word "smoke". (more)

(4) After the deadly 2015 L'Enfant Plaza fire, @NTSB's report led to a @WMATA order that passengers were not to be aboard inspection trains to look for smoke or fire. I've been reporting on that issue since the 2000 Foggy Bottom fire that trapped passengers. (more)

(5) But it had become obvious since the Dec 10, 2019 Tenleytown track fire that almost trapped passengers, some @WMATA workers were playing semantic games about "smoke" & "fire" or avoiding stating the obvious. (more) bit.ly/3dKJAHk

(6) That's why it was rewarding to finally see in @justingeorge's Mar 4 article the Feb 4 incident was the catalyst for @WMATA finally talking about an order ceasing the practice of sending passengers aboard any inspection trains, whether for smoke, fire or anything else. (more)

(7) BTW, the smoke was so obvious on Feb 4 that L'Enfant Plaza passengers were even tweeting about it. The smoke was from Metro workers cutting a lock in a room near the platform. (more)

(8) What brought my attention to this incident was this dispatch sending @dcfireems to L'Enfant Plaza for smoke removal. That was a little odd since normally they are called to find & help mitigate the source of the smoke. (more)

(9) Feb 4 was relatively minor as far as danger to passengers, but it was a major screwup. One @WMATA acknowledged right away. When I asked if train traffic should have been halted immediately & DC Fire & EMS notified earlier, a spokesman said, "Unequivocally, yes and yes."(more)

(10) My hope is the Feb 4 L'Enfant Plaza incident is the last time ROCC sends a passenger train toward known potential danger & ROCC has stopped playing games when it comes to smoke & fire.

Here's the @MetrorailSafety Feb 4 report being presented today:

(11) And here's @MetrorailSafety's report into the Feb. 4 incident at L'Enfant Plaza. WMSC's work is routinely impressive. It's a shame it took decades of safety neglect, injuries & death to get this kind of oversight. wmsc.gov/wp-content/upl…