More banking industry lessons on the Chron letters page
Does anyone see the irony in this:
METRO Responds to Chronicle Editorial
Feb. 2, 1006This morning, the Houston Chronicle ran a letter from METRO President and CEO Frank Wilson responding to a Jan. 29th editorial critical of METRO's response to pedestrian fatalities. Some of Mr. Wilson's comments were edited out of the letter. We would like you to see the letter in its entirety.
That's rich!
Remember when Rep. John Culberson's letter to the editor about Metro funding was (interestingly) edited? Since we ran Rep. Culberson's full letter (no space constraints on blogHOUSTON, unlike Chron.com apparently), we'll helpfully run Wilson's complete letter in the extended entry.
For some reason I am reminded of banking industry loan failure rates.
The death of a passenger or pedestrian is certainly the darkest of days for any organization that offers public transportation.
I can assure you this has been an upsetting and somber time for METRO's employees. We have spent the past week poring over evidence from the accident scene and interviewing witnesses, and on Friday, as promised, we turned over the results of our police investigation to the District Attorney's office.
It would be putting it mildly to say I was livid upon learning that the bus operator wasn't cooperating with our administrative investigation. We have since ordered him to cooperate with our internal investigation, or be fired, regardless of our findings.
My first response upon reading Edmund Kao's letter on the front of your Sunday editorial section was sadness - sadness that we have left him with the impression that METRO doesn't care about the death of his brother. It is troublingly and untrue. METRO is sorry for the loss of his brother just as we are sorry for the death of Domitila León. We publicly offered those condolences in a Saturday night news conference within hours of her passing. More personally, the head of operations, David Feeley, spent that afternoon in Ben Taub's intensive care ward and later went to Ms. León's family to offer condolences.
My second response was frustration - frustration at the Chronicle's headline implying our buses are "killers." It's a fact that we operate one of the safest systems in the nation. In the two years between these tragedies we logged 8.8 million hours of service. During the past two years in Houston, by comparison, someone died in an automobile accident every 39 hours.
I realize that statistics can't replace a life, and one death can negate years of safe operation, but inferring that METRO's buses are instruments of death grossly overlooks the fact that for many Houstonians they are a lifeline to work, school, doctor's appointments and shopping. To others, they are a viable alternative to high gasoline prices and hours spent in traffic.
A tragedy has taken place. We certainly understand the feelings of Mr. Kao - his are those of a man grieving for his brother. No amount of "spin" or money can make up for his loss or that of the León family. But, to paint METRO's employees as unfeeling or uncommitted to improving safety and service does nothing but deepen the pain for everyone.
Frank J. Wilson
President and CEO
Metropolitan Transit Authority
UPDATE: The version the Chronicle ran is here.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/04/06 05:37 PM | Print |
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