Metro’s acting chief safety officer resigns

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/metros-acting-chief-safety-officer-resigns/2016/03/25/ee865fc8-f2c4-11e5-a61f-e9c95c06edca_story.html

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Metro’s acting chief safety officer submitted his resignation Friday, seven months after taking over on an interim basis for the transit agency’s former safety chief, who was abruptly ousted after several calamitous subway accidents.

Lou Brown, a mechanical engineer who has worked in transportation safety for more than four decades, submitted his resignation early Friday but will stay with the agency until April 22, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said. Brown joined Metro in December 2011 as the top deputy to the agency’s then-chief safety officer, James Dougherty.

Metro is searching for a permanent safety chief.

Unlike Dougherty, who was forced out amid chronic safety-related problems in the rail system, Brown, 61, was not asked to quit, according to an official familiar with the resignation. Dougherty, whose salary was $192,000, resigned Sept. 2, a few hours after being publicly lambasted by members of Metro’s governing board over the derailment of a train.

The official, speaking about a personnel matter on the condition of anonymity, cautioned against “connecting any dots” between Brown’s impending departure and recent safety-related problems that led to a 24-hour shutdown of the subway.

[Metro’s safety chief resigns after derailment]

“Lou’s decision to leave is something he’s been telling people about for a while,” the official said. It was “a personal” choice, the official said, adding that “Lou just feels that he’s reached a crossroads in his career and it’s time to move on.”

Brown has worked in the safety field in the private sector and for the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. For two years before he joined Metro, while employed by the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, Brown helped with safety oversight of the Maryland Transit Administration.

The biggest problem in his seven months as acting safety chief occurred last week, when a March 14 track fire in a tunnel near Metro’s McPherson Square station caused hours of delays for tens of thousands of commuters.

The fire involved the same type of heavy-duty power cables that burned during a Jan. 12, 2015, track fire in a tunnel near the L’Enfant Plaza station. Scores of riders on a stalled train were sickened by smoke in that incident and one died of respiratory failure. The March 14 fire led Metro’s general manager, Paul J. Wiedefeld, to close the rail system for 24 hours on March 16 while cables were inspected throughout the system.

[Metrorail’s 24-hour shutdown was all about electricity]

Dougherty’s resignation was prompted by an Aug. 6 derailment. The train, which was not carrying passengers, went off the rails between the Smithsonian and Federal Triangle stations, forcing the day-long closures of the two stations, crippling large parts of the rail system and stranding thousands of commuters.

The derailment was caused by mistakes made weeks before by track inspectors and their supervisor, who had overlooked a dangerous defect with the tracks, according to a Metro report.