METRO police babysit the Danger Train

Image credit: Pixabay

For the past month, METRO police officers have been doing something a little different:

The transit agency has parked officers at six downtown intersections every day for the past month, aimed at preventing motorists from making illegal turns into the path of oncoming light rail trains.

There have been 57 accidents on the rail line this year — five fewer than in the first year of operation — many of them the result of illegal turns, the transit agency has said.

The officers are monitoring the intersections as part of a pilot program that began Nov. 17, said Police Chief Tom Lambert of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County. Last month, the city of Houston and Metro made adjustments to traffic signals at the same intersections to allow rail cars to proceed a few moments ahead of motorists.

“Some may say we’re being very aggressive with having officers at every intersection,” Lambert said. “But we have a responsibility to public safety to make sure we reduce accidents.”

Lambert said he will scale back the number of officers at the intersections along Main at St. Joseph, Franklin, Texas, Prairie, Preston and Congress. He said his review revealed no accidents had occurred at those sites since the start of the pilot program.

Starting Friday, he said, officers will be assigned to patrol “as appropriate” between Pierce and Commerce.

The change could not come soon enough for Metro officers, who have questioned the wisdom of requiring police to sit at the intersections for an entire shift rather than being out on patrol, said Dean Goodrick, the president of the Houston Police Patrolman’s Union.

Remember, this is the same police department that said it cannot possibly patrol its entire service area. But it can spare 6 officers to sit and watch the Danger Train all day long.

That’s how Chief Lambert does safety.


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