WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, wants the radio communication problems brought to light by the Jan. 12 deadly Metro smoke incident to be addressed before another costly mistake happens.
“If those radios worked, maybe there wouldn’t have been the fatality, maybe there wouldn’t have been the near amount of pain and suffering that took place,” Sen. Warner said in a press event earlier this week.
On Jan. 12, one woman died and dozens were sickened after an electrical malfunction caused a Yellow Line Metro train to fill with smoke at the L’Enfant Plaza station.
In a letter to Metro and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Warner says the radio issues prevented D.C. Fire and EMS personnel from communicating with each other and with Metro officials at the scene of the emergency at L’Enfant Plaza.
He wants Metro and COG to work together to create a process that ensures interoperability of radio networks, which are used by the region’s first responders.
The process would include agencies sharing information — especially if one agency makes a change to its radio network that would impact interoperability with other emergency radio networks.
“I’m contacting the Council of Governments and trying to ask that all six of the jurisdictions who make up Metro [that] their public radio systems are tested for interoperability. That systems when they change and improve their radio systems they notify Metro and that there’s this constant testing on a regular basis,” Warner said a press event.
Warner says Metro was told about a radio problem at the L’Enfant Plaza on Jan. 8 — before the Jan. 12 smoke incident.
“There was no official protocol to notify when a radio system is changed to notify their counterparts at Metro,” he says. “Then even when they were notified, there was no sense of urgency, saying we’ll get to it in a few days. There was no sense of urgency in getting this problem fixed.”
Warner is calling for change in the interest of riders’ safety.
“It’s become evident that the DC fire department upgraded their radio system, adding encryption techniques, but failed to communicate in a clear way to Metro.”
Read Warner’s full letter to Metro and COG:
Sen. Warner Letter On WMATA Interoperability 12215 by MarkWarner
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