Friday, October 23, 2009

The District Weekly: Shootings, corruption and Metro safety

What a surprise, the biggest stories this week revolved around shootings, corruption and safety within Metrorail and Metrobus. This is the first of a weekly round-up of sorts, where I present what dominated the news during the week in the District.

Many shootings across the District this week. Last night DC Alert sent out a notification of a shooting at 14th and Maryland Avenue, NE. No news reports on this incident, so it's likely injuries are minor. NewsChannel8 ran the story as "Man Goes to Checkers After Being Shot." I overlooked the headline, the humor downplayed the seriousness of the event. A man was shot in the chest and taken to the hospital. The alert gave the time of the shooting as 7:19 PM. 14th and Maryland Avenue NE is right near the nightlife destinations along H Street.

As noted here earlier, there was a shooting in Shaw near the Mt. Vernon Square Metro station. That incident left a woman injured. A teenager was shot at the Safeway on Georgia Avenue in Petworth. At last update the teen was in grave condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Earlier in the week, a man was injured and another killed in an apparent shootout in the 4800 block of G Street in Southeast.

Also noted, a man was killed by police in Northeast, near the National Arboretum. That incident was the 14th officer-involved shooting this year in the District.

The Washington City Paper takes a closer look at some of the taxicab bribery defendants. "Meet The Other Defendants" is a very well done story, and hats-off to the City Paper. This is absolutely an example of why continued, in-depth coverage of local stories is vital. For those following the ongoing taxicab investigation,this is a definite must read. Jason Cherkis sheds some light on just who was rounded a few weeks ago in a mass-arrest by investigators. In most cases, it appears, these were hardworking people hoping to have a shot at becoming cabbies. It looks like they had no idea they were playing a role in a large bribery scheme. It's a very sad read, and it also raises some questions about the investigation and the tactics involved.

Also from the City Paper, Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) decides to make a public meeting "off the record." Graham recently attended a Kalorama Citizens Association meeting and had a few things to say about the federal investigation that nabbed his Chief of Staff, Ted Loza. Sources who attended the meeting claim Graham essentially accused the FBI of entrapping Loza, and noted how the entire investigation is making him paranoid. When the City Paper attempted to confirm the comments, Graham's press chief Brian DuBose said the meeting was "off the record." Further efforts to receive a comment from Graham were fruitless.

Sorry, Councilmember, but a public meeting is, by its very nature, on the record.

Metro gets blasted for bus problems, announces testing of rail safety technology. WTOP News did what can only be described as a hit-job on Metro this week. Adam Tuss and Mark Segraves obtained employee discipline statistics from Metro, and ran a very sensationalized piece entitled "Ride at Your Own Risk." While some of the numbers they present are startling, it's difficult to make sense of them. There is no context given, nor definitions. Generally figures are given in terms of incidents per 100,000 revenue miles, in order to normalize across transit systems and account for the amount of service an agency provides. WTOP essentially just wrote a story based on a first glance at a spreadsheet.

I'm cleary not a Metro apologist, but I'd like to see some sense made of these numbers. Perhaps the number of bus collisons is high compared to other agencies. Perhaps Metrobus drivers are "less safe" by the numbers than say, MTA drivers in New York or MBTA drivers in Boston. While I don't expect a 5,000 word investigative piece from WTOP, I'd think they could do just a little bit better. The story would be much more compelling if it told a bit more of an actual story. A scare piece and a video of buses (and cars) rolling through stop signs isn't anything earth shattering.

Also this week, Metro announced that a prototype track circuit monitoring system is ready for testing. The software system, developed by Bethesda based firm ARNIC, will monitor track circuits in real time for any malfunctions. Metro currently scans for circuit malfunctions twice a day, as a response to the June 22 Red Line crash. The development of this real-time monitoring system was in response to an urgent NTSB recommendation. At this point it's unclear how long the testing will take, or what the cost of the software will be. Metro has refused to answer questions about pricing.

This is obviously a step forward, however one has to wonder why a real time monitoring system was not developed sooner. While it's helpful to have software checking for defects in the Automatic Train Control system, it would be even better to have an ATC system that could experience malfunctions and not result in trains crashing into one another. However much money Metro ends up spending on this software monitoring system could have been better spent decades ago developing an ATC system that fails safely.

by Dave Stroup, filed under District Weekly at 10:00AM

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