LOS ANGELES (CN) - After a train crash killed 25 people in 2008, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority spent $263 million on newly designed cab cars, and when three cars were derailed in a collision this year, directors discussed it in an illegal meeting behind closed doors, the Los Angeles Times claims in court.
The Times and Californians Aware (CalAware) sued the Rail Authority in Superior Court on Oct. 23, seeking notes, minutes and audiotapes of the Sept. 2 meeting, including a record of each member's votes, and an injunction against violations of the Brown Act.
The Rail Authority is a joint powers authority that operates Metrolink trains.
"In February 2015, a Metrolink train and a heavy-duty pickup truck and trailer collided near Oxnard. During Metrolink's subsequent investigation into the crash, it discovered that its new Hyundai Rotem cab cars had a possible design flaw, which could cause derailments during a collision. The new fleet of Hyundai Rotem cab cars were part of a $263 million investment following a 2008 head-on collision in Chatsworth that killed 28 people and injured 135 others," the complaint states.
In the Chatsworth disaster a Metrolink commuter train ran head-on into a Union Pacific freight train. The National Transportation Safety Board found that the Metrolink train ran a red signal onto a track where the freight train had been given right of way. The NTSB blamed the Metrolink engineer, who it said was sending text messages at the time.
Twenty-eight people were hurt in this year's Oxnard collision, and one died. In that crash, a man abandoned his Ford F-450 pickup on the tracks after it became stuck there. He fled to save his own life, and was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident. Three train cars were derailed and four people were hospitalized with serious injuries.
That crash was Metrolink's "fourth serious accident involving a train pushed by a locomotive," the L.A. Times reported.
After Metrolink investigated the Oxnard crash, the Rail Authority held an "emergency teleconference meeting" in closed session on Sept. 2 to discuss the design flaw with its board of directors, the Times says in the lawsuit. It says the authority gave only six hours notice of the meeting, citing a closed session exemption allowing law enforcement and safety officials to meet and consult on public safety threats to justify the short notice.
Though the Rail Authority claimed no decisions were made in the meeting, the next day Metrolink announced it would "replace the potentially defective cab cars with locomotives leased from the Burlington Santa Fe Railway Co., at a cost of approximately $23.9 million," according to the complaints.
The Times says the closed session does not qualify for exemption because its purpose was to discuss a design flaw, not a threat to public business or public safety.
The Brown Act allows emergency sessions to be held without 24 hours notice if they are convened to address actual emergencies, such as work stoppages, terrorist acts, or "a crippling disaster," the complaint states. A potential design defect does not qualify as an emergency, so the closed session was illegal under the Brown Act, the Times says.
A spokeswoman for the Rail Authority told Courthouse News in an email that the authority "is confident that we have acted and continue to act in accordance with the Brown Act."
