September 15th 2008

Metrolink Spokeswoman Resigns

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enise Tyrrell, who shocked just about everyone when she said within hours of last Friday’s Metrolink crash that the Metrolink engineer was to blame for the accident has resigned her position as the agency’s spokesperson.

Metrolink Spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said she has quit over comments made by the Metrolink board.

She claims that Metrolink’s Chief Executive told her she could release the basic facts of the investigation after Friday’s crash, including an initial statement suggesting the Metrolink engineer may have been at fault in the deadly crash after ignoring a red warning signal.

Tyrrell says she decided to resign after a statement read by board member Ron Roberts to a Los Angeles Times blogger Sunday that her announcement was “premature.”

Tyrrell says she believes that the public should know the facts as early as possible. (source)

I would agree with Tyrrell to a point. It is perfectly good crisis management to roll out facts as quickly as you get them, and the consequences of not doing so can be profound. But you should only disclose information that has been proven true, because having to admit you disclosed misinformation in the middle of a crisis can make reputation recovery much tougher.

In this case, Tyrrell’s statement was proven true – or as close as you can get to true at this point – when the NTSB also tagged the engineer with blame on Sunday.  But that was Sunday, and Tyrrell pegged him on Friday.

Tyrrell said she had Metrolink’s Chief Executive permission to give an initial statement suggesting the Metrolink engineer may have been at fault in the deadly crash after ignoring a red warning signal, but her resignation today suggests either she misunderstood the direction … or is being sacrificed to protect a CEO who overstepped.

It all goes to show how important internal communications and clear directions are in crisis situations.  The issue of blame is the biggest issue in a crisis, and it demands considerable care.  As refreshing as it seems to hear an immediate mea culpa, it’s essential everyone who’s in the leadership of the “mea” agrees with the “culpa.”  As Denise Tyrrell is painfully aware today.

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September 14th 2008

Metrolink May Have Been Deadliest Text Message Crash

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veryone presumes that the engineer of the crashed Metrolink train, tentatively ID’d as Robert Sanchez, was asleep when he blew through a red light, but a local TV station says it might have been quite different:

Metrolink officials Saturday put the blame squarely on the engineer of the train for the deadly crash that has claimed at least 25 lives. They say he ran a red light.

But a group of local teenage train enthusiasts who knew the engineer well, doubt that he was to blame.

They called their friend professional and caring and said he helped them learn about trains and being an engineer. They said he would “never” have been reckless or unprofessional or run a red light.

But one minute before the deadliest crash in Metrolink history, one teen — Nick Williams — said he received a text message on his cell phone from the engineer, whom the teens identified as Robert Sanchez.

Williams’ received text was brief, “Just two lines”, reported KCAL 9 and CBS 2 reporter Kristine Lazar, exclusively.

The text apparently told Williams and his friends where Sanchez would be meeting another passenger train. (source)

The NTSB is taking it seriously, checking out phone records and talking to the boys – after all, the text message came in at 4:22 p.m., moments before the crash.

Here in California, they’ve banned talking on a hand-held cell phone, but there still no law against text messaging while driving.

Hat-tip: Jim

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September 13th 2008

Human Error

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ow can two trains crash head-on killing dozens of innocents here in America, where we have elevated safety to demi-god status? Unfortunately, the answer is all too simple: Human error.

Metrolink, the LA Times reports, has admitted their engineer apparently fell asleep and blew through a red signal, onto a one-way stretch of track, and smashed into an oncoming freight train:

Metrolink officials said today that an engineer on their commuter train that collided head-on Friday afternoon with a freight train — killing at least 24 and critically injuring dozens more — ignored a red light telling him to stop.

Had the engineer obeyed the signal, the accident would not have occurred, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said.

“We want to be honest in our appraisal,” she said at the scene of the crash, as rescue workers, now in recovery mode, continued to use heavy machinery to untangle the twisted remains of the most damaged passenger car.

“Barring any information from the NTSB, we believe our engineer failed to stop and that was the cause of the accident,” she said, referring to the National Transportation Safety Board. “Of course, it is your worst fear that this could happen, that the ability for human error to occur could come into the scenario.”

The fact that the as yet unidentified and probably dead engineer was not a Metrolink employee but rather a subcontractor employed by a company called Veolia Transportation will bring more criticism to Metrolink. The agency was blasted after its last fatal accident for refusing to always have engines in the front of their trains. In that case, there likely would have been no fatalities if the train was being pulled instead of pushed. In this case, the engine was in the front, but the engineer’s error was so profound a terrible accident still resulted.

As of this writing, 24 are dead and 135 are injured, some gravely.

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