SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2010
KLMNO Metro switches to electronic safety tracker
Pressure on since crash, real-time incident trail will help spot trends
by Ann Scott Tyson ticated safety
Metro plans to unveil a sophis- tracking system
next month that will enable it to detect hazardous trends in real time and help prevent accidents, Metro’s top safety officer said Fri- day. The development of the elec- tronic accident and investigation system comes amid intense scru- tiny of Metro by federal and local oversight bodies in the aftermath of last June’s Red Line crash and other fatal accidents. Metro’s newly appointed chief
safety officer, James Dougherty, said the Safety Management Sys- tem will provide extensive data on incidents throughout Metro. Until now, Metro has relied upon a manual system largely involv- ing paper reports and spread- sheets, which are cumbersome to access, he said. “It’s significant. The plan is to reduce the manual labor and have as close to real-time data as you [can] get,” Dougherty said.
The data were not integrated and had to be sifted by hand to dis- cern any trends, Dougherty said. “If it was cumulative, it had to be done in a manual fashion.” Metro officials said direct costs for technology development and testing by experts are estimated at $600,000. Safety overseers reserved judg- ment on whether the system will work as planned. “When it comes to accident
tracking and . . . how they man- age safety data, we’ve made our expectations clear,” said Matt Bassett, head of the Tri-State Oversight Committee, which oversees safety at Metro. “We un- derstand they are working on technology solutions to accom- plish that, but we’re still waiting to see what the final product will be.”
Criticism of Metro’s safety and oversight system intensified after the Red Line crash June 22, 2009, that killed nine and injured 80 and a string of other deadly acci- dents in recent months. An audit completed in March by the Feder- al Transit Administration called for across-the-board improve- ments in Metro’s safety practices — including an incident-tracking system. In a response to the FTA audit in May, Metro’s interim general
manager, Richard Sarles, pledged that the agency would develop a “Web-based tool to allow for com- munication of safety-related in- formation, including identified hazards and tracking across de- partments.”
Sarles said initial development would be complete by the end of August.
Dougherty, however, said the system would be operating by the end of July. He said Metrobus is running a pilot program, includ- ing training, while requirements are being developed for its use in the rail system. Dougherty said a robust sys- tem would allow Metro to apply filters, make queries, and identify possible trends and “watch areas” — from flat tires to cracked rails. He said it would help transit offi- cials answer the question: “If there is a failure, is it a single fail- ure or a system failure?” The system would also link in- cident and accident reports to Metro’s work order system and workers’ compensation data. Supervisors would enter the
data immediately, he said, ac- knowledging that “any good data- base is based on the information that is getting added, and fre- quently reports are not inputted until the end of the shift.” Metro, moreover, has struggled
to correct safety problems al- ready identified. The agency has not implemented more than 100 corrective action plans recom- mended by federal and local safe- ty oversight bodies, a record which members of Metro’s board of directors criticized this week. Board Chairman Peter Benja-
min pressed Dougherty to pro- vide details on how old each of the corrective action plans was. “Clearly, that 33 were closed out in December told us something,” he said, comparing that flurry of activity with the fewer than six each month that were closed from January through May. “We need to know, are these on sched- ule or behind schedule?” Dougherty said Metro’s goal was to complete “a minimum” of 10 corrective plans each month, with no more than 45 days trans- piring for each. Dougherty, 52, became Metro’s top safety officer April 19, filling one of several vacancies in the safety department. He came to Metro after serving
as chief safety officer for the San Francisco Municipal Transporta- tion Agency and had also served as general manager of safety at the Charlotte Area Transit System in North Carolina from 2004 to 2009.
tysona@washpost.com Gray’s coffers boosted in past 3 months by Nikita Stewart
D.C. Council Chairman Vin- cent C. Gray (D) pulled together $2,000 contributions from wealthy lawyers and $10 dona- tions from social workers and teachers to help raise more than $561,000 during the past three months — a far cry from the $4.2million war chest Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) has built since 2008 for his reelection. But Gray’s out-the-gate effort to unseat the incumbent mayor outpaced Fenty’s three-month haul of $475,000. The most re- cent campaign finance filings gave a big boost to the chairman’s
supporters and prompted the mayor’s backers to play down Gray’s feat.
Ben Soto, Fenty’s campaign treasurer, noted that the mayor raised $2 million in his first filing period in early 2009. He also said the campaign had already tapped contributors for the maximum $2,000, so a leveling-off was ex- pected. “We raised almost a half- million dollars after raising $4 million,” Soto said. “We con- sider that very successful.” Doug Patton, a former deputy
mayor who abandoned the Fenty camp and is now a co-chair of Gray’s fundraising committee, said: “I was figuring if we raised $450,000, that would be on tar-
LOTTERIES June 13
DISTRICT Mid-Day Lucky Numbers:
Mid-Day D.C. 4: Mid-Day DC-5:
Lucky Numbers (Fri.): Lucky Numbers (Sat.): D.C. 4 (Fri.): D.C. 4 (Sat.): DC-5 (Fri.): DC-5 (Sat.): Daily 6 (Fri.): Daily 6 (Sat.):
MARYLAND Mid-Day Pick 3:
Mid-Day Pick 4: Night/Pick 3 (Fri.): 2-1-3 6-7-2-3
1-8-1-6-6 1-4-5 5-5-9
0-6-0-8 2-4-5-5
2-9-1-7-9 9-8-4-6-3
7-8-9-23-30-34 *19 9-12-14-17-30-31 *26
0-6-7
5-6-1-0 1-7-5
Pick 3 (Sat.): 2-5-8 Pick 4 (Fri.): 1-0-6-6 Pick 4 (Sat.): Match 5 (Fri.): Match 5 (Sat.):
8-2-2-1
4-14-30-36-38 *11 2-4-22-35-39 *6
VIRGINIA Day/Pick-3:
Pick-4: Cash-5:
Night/Pick-3 (Fri.): Pick-3 (Sat.): Pick-4 (Fri.): Pick-4 (Sat.): Cash-5 (Fri.): Cash-5 (Sat.): Win for Life:
MULTI-STATE GAMES Powerball:
Power Play:
Mega Millions: Hot Lotto:
6-0-2 5-8-3-8
1-13-17-18-20 8-4-9 N/A
8-3-6-4 N/A
4-17-23-24-25 N/A N/A
N/A N/A
6-13-33-34-42 **25 N/A
*Bonus Ball **Mega Ball ***Powerball †Hot Ball ‡Free Ball All winning lottery numbers are official only when validated at a lottery ticket location or a lottery claims office. Because of late drawings, some results do not appear in early editions. For late lottery results, check
www.washingtonpost.com/lottery.
get.” “To see this level of financial
support in such a short period of time is truly remarkable and humbling,” said Adam Rubinson, Gray’s campaign manager, in a news release. “The sheer number of people willing to invest in Vince and his campaign demon- strates just how intensely people want to see a change of leader- ship in the District of Columbia.” Gray, who donated $25,000 to his own campaign, is Fenty’s chief challenger in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary. His stump speech at fundraisers has includ- ed a line that he will never catch up to Fenty’s $4 million, but he wants to be competitive. The campaign finance reports show that Fenty still has $3.2million in cash on hand, dwarfing the $371,000 Gray has available. Gray had nearly twice as many individual contributions in the three-month period: 1,526 to Fen- ty’s 792.
Among the contributors to
Fenty’s campaign were former congressman Tom Davis (R-Va.) and poker player Daniel Shak, who each gave $2,000. Model and actress Chuanda Mason, who was on “American Gladiator” in 2008 and has appeared on “Ugly Betty,” gave $2,000 to Gray. The mayor’s report also re- vealed that his sign-wavers and canvassers are part of a paid staff of at least 45 people. “We have a lot of visibility,” Soto said. “It takes money to do that. This is obviously a hotly contested race.” The campaign wanted well- versed representatives to knock on doors for Fenty, Soto said. “It’s important to have people who
ANIMAL WATCH
Good Samaritan saves fledgling ALEXANDRIA, N. Howard St.
and Taney Ave., June 1. A woman saw a fledgling robin being at- tacked by two crows on the grounds of an apartment com- plex and intervened. The crows flew away, and the woman put the robin in a bird cage in her home. An animal control officer took the fledgling to the Animal
You, too,could
Welfare League of Alexandria’s shelter. The bird, which appeared to be dehydrated, was later taken to a wildlife rehabilitator, who will care for it until it can survive in the wild.
Among cases handled by the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria
SF
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understand the issues and can answer questions,” he said. Asked why some workers appeared to be teens or young adults, Soto said young people have more flexible hours with summer vaca- tion.
Other candidates for mayor
who filed their reports on time by midnight Thursday showed mini- mal fundraising.
Sulaimon Brown, an auditor and former Fenty volunteer, is $277 in debt. A report for Leo Al- exander, a former television re- porter with a strong grass-roots organization, was not available online Friday. In the contest to succeed Gray, council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large) pulled some last-minute one-upmanship Thursday against former Ward 5 council member Vincent B. Or- ange.
Brown filed his campaign fi- nance report in the early after- noon, posting nearly $180,000 raised and about $113,000 in cash on hand. In the evening, Orange, who recently resigned as a vice president at Pepco to run for of- fice, listed nearly $183,000 raised and close to $139,000 in cash on hand.
Brown later amended his re-
port to show $203,000 raised and about $139,000 in cash on hand. New contributions included $500 from Bill Lightfoot, a for- mer council member and chair- man of Fenty’s campaign. Light- foot’s law firm also contributed $1,500.
stewartn@washpost.com
Staff writer Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.
COURTESY OF JAMES ROSENTHAL/HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS
S JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
Lustron homes were built to last, but few were buying
ome time in the early 1950s somewhere in the Washington area, my wife
and I checked out a new type of house. It was made of metal and was quite pretty, with color that seemed to be fused right into the metal. I thought you’d never have to paint it. It seemed like a great idea if it worked. But I wondered: Won’t they get hit by lightning? Will they rust? How long will these things last?
—Jack Pleasant, Falls Church “You can count on your
grandchildren living it.” At least that’s what it said in a 1948 brochure for the Lustron home, which promised “a new standard for living.” The Lustron is the best-known prefabricated metal home, but several other manufacturers tried their hands at the form, using everything from corrugated steel to aluminum. The Lustron arrived in
Washington with much fanfare. In May 1948, a model Lustron home opened at New Hampshire Avenue and E Street NW in Foggy Bottom. Before long, it was attracting 1,500 visitors a day, who paid 25 cents each to tour the 1,025-square-foot bungalow. The money went to the
Veterans of Foreign Wars, a fitting beneficiary seeing as it was returning GIs and the resulting baby boom that had caused a post-war housing shortage. The Lustron was the brainchild of an engineer named Carl G. Strandlund, who manufactured the constituent parts in a plant in Columbus, Ohio, that had previously made warplanes. Houses were built on concrete slabs, had steel frames and were faced with
porcelain-enameled steel panels, like you’d find on a stove. Owners were kept warm by a radiant-heating system in the ceiling. Shipped from the factory in pieces, the house could be erected in 350 man hours. “The Lustron home is
decay-proof, vermin-proof, rust-proof, termite-proof,” claimed the company. And what convenience! One ad had a great photo of a housewife in pearls and heels hosing down the exterior of a Lustron with a garden hose. As for lightning, the entire house was grounded. Congress authorized the loan
A Lustron home on its original lot in the 5200 block of South 12th Street in Arlington.
of $15.5 million to Lustron, but demand never met projections. The military provided a temporary lifeline — 60 houses were built for Marine families at Quantico — but the company went bankrupt in 1950. (You could have had a Quantico Lustron for free in 2007, when the Marines made them available gratis before building new housing. There was only one taker.)
About 2,500 Lustrons were
erected nationally. Four remain in Arlington County, including two on Forest Drive between Columbia Pike and George Mason Drive. Another is in pieces and stored in a trailer in Chantilly. It’s owned by the county and was disassembled, then reassembled at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for a 2008 exhibit. “It would be great to put it back up in Arlington,” said Cynthia Liccese-Torres, the county’s historic preservation planner.
Lustrons are remarkably sound, Cynthia said, but do have some rust issues, especially around the bathroom areas. (Water and steel: bad combination.) The exteriors can develop nicks from falling acorns and branches, which can invite rust. Auto body shops seem to be best at addressing such blemishes. As for the Columbus factory where the Lustrons were built, it’s now a warehouse for the DSW shoe company.
Send a Kid to Camp The cabins at Camp Moss
Hollow are more spartan than the Lustrons. Call them the Woodtrons. But campers wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, that’s the charm of a summer camp, the charm of nature. You can help support Camp
Moss Hollow, a camp for at-risk kids from the Washington area. Make a tax-deductible gift by mailing a check or money order, payable to “Send a Kid to Camp,” to P.O. Box 96237, Washington, D.C. 20090-6237. Or contribute online by going to www.
washingtonpost.com/camp and clicking on the donation link. To use MasterCard or Visa by phone, call 202-334-5100 and follow the instructions.
Questions? Write
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