Fired Metro Operator Spent 9 Years On Leave: Report
Worker had just returned when she derailed train
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WASHINGTON - FEBRUARY 12: Firefighters exit the Farragut North Station after a Metro train derailment February 12, 2010 in Washington, DC. A Red Line train in the Shady Grove direction derailed near the station. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The Metro train operator who was fired for derailing her train last month had just returned to work after spending nine years on medical leave, according to the Washington Examiner.
The derailment happened Feb. 12 at the Farragut North Station on the Red Line. Metro said the train ran a red light and automatically derailed to avoid causing a collision.
The train operator has not been publicly identified. Metro said she worked for the agency since 1976 and had been a train operator since 1999.
However, the Washington Examiner is reporting that the operator had spent nine years of that time on medical leave. She had just recently gotten back to work, meaning she had less than two years of train-operating experience, according to the Examiner.
Jackie Jeter, the head of the transit workers' union, told the Examiner that the operator had been on medical leave for a work-related injury.
Some of the operator's peers told the Examiner that she wasn't given enough retraining. Metro created new policies during her absence, upgraded rail cars, and opened new stations.
To become a new train operator, Metro workers must take a 13-week class, according to the Examiner. However, the fired operator only received a few weeks of retraining, the paper reported.
Posted Thursday, Mar 18, 2010 - 9:42 AM EST
