Another Alarming Video Taken Inside D.C. Metro Shows Driver Sleeping at Controls

[WriteDown]

Source: Fox News

Another damning video of a D.C. Metro operator has surfaced, this one showing the driver sleeping at the controls.

The stunning footage was captured June 18 by a 14-year-old passenger on the subway's green line in Maryland, only a few days before the deadly red line crash that killed nine people and injured more than 70.

"At first he's dozing off ... he's not in a full sleep," the boy, Gregory Thomas, told FOX 5. "I see him start to doze off and his head going limp."

The teen sent the video to Metro officials on June 23, the day after the fatal accident. He said it should be a wake-up call....


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,531040,00.html

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I was just resting my eyes!!!!

[razorman]

1. I guess that driver will now have plenty of free time for naps.

[Xithras]

2. The real problem here is the automation of the train systems.

Humans aren't designed to sit in one place, for 6+ hours a day, and do absolutely nothing. And yet, that's exactly what many of these train operators do nowadays. The computers run the trains, and the human is asked to sit there "just in case" something screws up.

Try to sit in an uncomfortable chair and stare out the front window of your home for two hours straight. No talking on the phone, no television, no conversations with anyone, no texting, no reading, no pets, and no real human contact. Just sit there and stare. Just in case something interesting happens. Subway operators and railroad engineers do this all day long sometimes.

And we're suprised that they occasionally doze off?

[WriteDown]

3. Maybe the solution is to have a coal furnace in there

where they have to shovel coal in all day to power the train. :)

[Xithras]

11. Not needed, but some interactivity should be required.

Sitting there all day doing nothing is a recipe for disaster.

I actually prefer systems where the computer tells the person what to do, the person does it, and the computer is simply there as an emergency override if the human screws up. That keeps the operator active and involved with the operation of the equipment, instead of relegating the human to the role of redundant observer.

[guitar man]

12. exactly

the master control functions at the tv station where I work were automated several years ago, so that's precisely what our master control operators do now instead of switching programming like they used to. I'd be willing to bet if I walked into the control room right now, he's dozing in his chair.

[bertman]

4. The lesson here is to never do anything stupid around a 14 year-old with a cell phone.

[kimmylavin]

5. I have to wonder...

What's going on with the work conditions.

I'm completely exhausted at my job.
They've laid off 9 people in the past year, leaving us with a grand total of 15 employees to run a theater that operates 10 - 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.
Those of us who are part time are held to 20 hours a week.
But we still have to do all the work we were doing in 25 - 35 hours a week.

What are they doing with the drivers' shifts?
Double shifts?
Not enough turnaround?
Since its happening everywhere else I'm wondering if its going on here...

(Granted, I know the driver shouldn't have been sleeping. I'm just wondering if he's as worn-down and exhausted as the rest of us.)

[Mike Daniels]

10. From my understanding....

Metro pays pretty well. I can't imagine that they'd be suffering from a lack of people interested in these jobs.

If the issue is money then I imagine they'd look at reducing the number of trains running, reduce the later operating hours or raise the fares vs. asking workers to do double-time which I'd think would violate some safety regulations.

[prostomulgus]

6. If this were a WHITE operator, this video would have never surfaced. n/t

[YOY]

8. It probably would have.

Just not on FOX first.

[cosmicone]

7. They should have cameras inside the cockpit (or whatever it is called)

so that a central location can monitor all the train operators.

It should be criminal at the salary levels these people have. Some of these train operators make $120K a year and all they have to know is to start and stop a train -- if that.

[atreides1]

9. And they have a great pension plan too!

It counts overtime as part of their retirement.