There have been 10 red signal violations that have occurred so far in 2016, two of them in the past week.

But the July 5 event — in which a train near Glenmont station ran through a red signal, continued past a switch, and headed into the direction of an oncoming train — was the most serious.

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“I don’t think ‘red signal violation’ truly captures what happened,” Lavin said at the outset of his presentation, adding later, “This was just flagrant.”

According to Lavin’s account of the incident, the operator of a northbound train committed his first rule violation when, at the Glenmont station, he closed the door of the train before receiving a positive speed command. He also had his radio turned off.

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He proceeded through a red signal and then entered a switch that had changed direction moments before. The train then traveled at 12 mph past two roadway workers who jumped out of the way and onto the elevated platform against the wall. As the train kept moving, the workers realized that the train wasn’t authorized to keep moving, and then began yelling and screaming for the operator to stop. The operator heard those yells, and the train halted 300 feet past the roadway workers.

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“It was the two track workers on the track yelling at the train operator that finally captured his attention,” Lavin said.

Another train had been headed in an oncoming direction but had stopped after receiving an emergency radio alert from the operations command center. The two trains came to a stop 2,000 feet away from one another.

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Later, when passengers were evacuated from the train, they were taken onto tracks that still had power running to the third rail. The third rail stayed energized for another 80 minutes after the incident occurred. Lavin said he believes that Metro staff had tested the third rail to verify that the power was off but there was an incorrect reading.

Five employees were later disciplined for inadequately following safety protocol, Metro announced last week.

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Lavin said that the incident occurred after the operator had gotten into an argument about when and where he would receive his next break; apparently, the operator was due for a break, but wanted to be relieved at a station where there were more food options.

“It turned into this childish debate,” Lavin said. “It wasn’t this rush-rush mentality put on him by management. … He was concerned for a different reason.”

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Metro board members expressed serious concerns about the incident, and the steps that would be taken to prevent it from happening in the future.

“Right now, I don’t see how you can talk about operators being rushed and unable to do their jobs,” said Metro board member Robert C. Lauby. “There are procedures in place that need to be followed, and if they were followed, these issues would go away.”

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