KPRC-2 reports again on METRO’s problem with train operators who are not heeding traffic control signals:
Operators of METRORail trains are running red lights and putting people’s lives in danger, the Local 2 Troubleshooters reported in an exclusive story Monday.
A camera on a train seen running a red light at Main and Pierce streets on Friday captured video of an operator blowing through a red light.
“It was really kind of frightening because I am looking at the light thinking, ‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute. (My) light is green.’ I was watching it as the train went through and still it was green,” witness Dale Higginbotham told Local 2.
After experiencing the near miss, Higginbotham called the Troubleshooters, who obtained a copy of the video taken on board the train.
METRO’s Senior Vice President of Operation David Feeley told Local 2 the driver was suspended without pay after reviewing the video.
Feeley said Friday’s incident was not an isolated case — that it was the second time in the same week that the transit system caught a light-rail conductor running a red light.
“I am going to tighten up the work rules and tighten up the discipline,” the METRO officials said.
Feeley, who recently joined METRO, said things are changing at the transit system. He said under current rules, light-rail operators are given a warning the first time they are caught running a red light.
“The discipline is going to be a little more swift and a little more aggressive. It’s not going to be a warning. It’s going to be serious stuff,” Feeley said.
Let’s all hope that it’s more serious than the discipline meted out to municipal workers who fabricated test results in the HPD crime lab.
