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Director Peter Castelli told the Guardian that he understands the concerns of workers like Bright, but that he think most members will support the decision to strike once they get more information. “It’s a fast evolving situation, with the stewards and union leadership saying ‘we gotta go out.’ So explaining things to our own membership takes time,” Castelli told us. He ridiculed statements by district officials that the unions are resisting modernizing the system. Instead, both Daly and Castelli said that the district was deliberately trying to provoke a strike by making a last minute demand that it knew would be unacceptable to the unions. “It’s to make us strike. The public is devastated by this, and for good reason, and we’re very sympathetic. So they’re thinking that, ‘Maybe we make them strike one more time and they’ll fold,” Castelli told us. “Our only other option is submission and surrender.”
tor, were inspecting a “dip in the rail” before they were hit by an oncoming train. There was a camera inside the train facing the cabin, but no camera facing out towards the track. Longtime BART safety trainer Saul Almanza arrived at the scene shortly after the public was notified of the accident. He described the site of the crash as gruesome, in an interview with the Guardian. He had Sheppard and Daniels in his safety classes. He knew them. He stared downward as he remembered seeing the forms of his fellow workers under yellow sheets. Almanza explained the rules that protect workers lives out on a track, rules that have been a big part of the labor negotiations, with unions insisting on better safety protections. Almanza spent years training workers in the rules that may have failed the workers who died over the weekend. Much of training revolves around safety procedures of BART’s Simple Approval process, meant to protect workers on the rail. Simple Approval keeps the Operations Control Center “aware of the presence of personnel in a specified location in the trackway,” according to a BART safety manual. When
Safety iSSueS
Pop Quiz, oil on canvas, 51 × 39¼ inches ©2013 Mark Kostabi
On the second day of the strike, Christopher Sheppard, a BART manager and member of the AFSCME union, and Larry Daniels, a contrac-
workers are preparing to work on a track, they must recite the simple approval to the control center, also known as central control. It works like signing a waiver, saying that you understand the rules of safety, and more importantly, that you can work on the track without diverting trains. Cars of steel can whip by at any moment, so it’s important for workers to use simple approval to signal to central control that they are prepared. But it’s also a warning system. Once simple approval is given, train operators are supposed to be notified that someone is working on the tracks. When central control enters that information into the computer, an automated message is relayed to all of the BART system, including trains, warning which tracks have workers in harm’s way. Alarmingly, audio from BART dispatch, obtained by journalist Matthew Keys, revealed that the automated message from central relayed that there were no workers on the tracks. It was wrong. “A message from BART operation: there are no personnel wayside,” the automated message said in a female tone (wayside means on the tracks). Afterward, a voice piped up on dispatch to correct the automat-
ed message. “Disregard, attention all personnel, we have personnel wayside,” said the next message, this time by a human worker. But the erroneous message could have confused the train operator, Almanza said, and possibly led to a fatal error. A more experienced operator may have caught the subtleties in the communication, he said, but someone who was refreshing their skills might not have caught the second message. Catching shifting commands quickly is “one of the nuances” of train operations, Almanza said. Even if the train operator wasn’t expecting the workers to be on the tracks, there were still measures in place to ensure their safety. One of these is the 15-second-rule. It says a worker can’t work somewhere on the track from which they can’t see a train coming 15 seconds away — like around a curve, elevation, or track shrouded by vegetation. If they need to work in a section of track with less visibility, they have to follow a different set of procedures by obtaining a work order. Almanza said a lingering question is whether the section of the track Daniels and Sheppard worked
on fell under the standards of the 15-second rule. Having a sight line is important, he said, because you can’t use your ears to hear a train coming. “It’s like a jet flying over you, you don’t hear it until it’s past you,” he explained. “I always teach in my class: ‘You don’t listen for trains, you look for trains.’” When the workers follow the letter of the 15-second-rule to a tee, he said, they see a train coming and retreat to safety. Yet Almanza said the accident is perplexing because these workers had years of experience. Paul Oversier, BART’s head of operations, also confirmed the men in the accident were experienced professionals. “They understand the railroads and understand moving trains, they were doing today something they’ve done a thousand times,” Oversier said at a press conference just after the accident. But even experienced workers need to be recertified in safety protocol, Almanza said. It’s still unclear what role the training played in the tragedy, and the NTSB could take a year to draw conclusions. 2 Rebecca Bowe and Tim Daw contributed to this report.
Martin Lawrence Galleries San Francisco is delighted to welcome world-renowned artist Mark Kostabi, whose works grace the permanent collections of over 50 major museums. Join us for an evening with the artist and the chance to acquire his remarkably colorful and creative artwork. M E E T
T H E
A R T I S T
Saturday, October 26th 6:00 – 8:00 pm RSVP (415) 956-0345 Art on exhibit through November 17th
Martin•Lawrence Galleries
366 Geary Street, San Francisco (just off Union Square) W W W. M A R T I N L A W R E N C E . C O M h G E A R Y @ M A R T I N L A W R E N C E . C O M
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October 23 - 29, 2013 / SFBG.com
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