IISTPS Report 96-1
in
Surface Transportation
A Symposium
(Reprinted in 2001)
Norman Y. Mineta
International Institute for
Surface Transportation Policy Studies
IISTPS
Created by Congress in 1991
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1.
Report No FHWA/CA/OR-96-1 . |
2. Government Accession No. |
3. Recipients Catalog No. |
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Title and Subtitle Terrorism in Surface Transportation: A Symposium |
5. Report Date June 1996 |
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6. Performing Organization Code |
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7. Author: IISTPS
(Transcript) |
8. Performing Organization Report No.
A94RM63 |
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9. Performing Organization
Name and Address California Department of Transportation New Technology and Research, MS-83 P.O. Box 942873 Sacramento, Ca. 94273-0001 |
10. Work Unit No. |
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11. Contract or Grant No. |
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12. Sponsoring Agency
Name and Address California
Department of Transportation Office of Research- MS4 400 7thStreet, SW
Sacramento, CA 94273-0001; |
13. Type of Report and
Period Covered Final Report |
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14. Sponsoring Agency Code |
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15. Supplementary Notes |
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16. Abstract This document is a transcript of a symposium held on March 15, 1996 as part of the IISTPS charter of continuing education in the area of surface transportation policy. The topic for this symposium was selected to help meet the need for awareness of, and preparedness for, possible terrorist attacks on the surface transportation systems within the United States and the world. The expert panel consisted of the following individuals: á Tom Savage, Chief Security Officer NY Transit Authority. á Patrick Webb, Supervisory Special Agent, Counter-Terrorism Squad, FBI. á Ernest R. Frazier, Chief of Police, Amtrak á Denis Jackson, VP for Technical Operations, American Medical Response West, Inc. A question and answer period followed the formal presentations. |
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17. Key Words:
Derailments; Security; Security Measures; Transportation Safety; Terrorism; |
18. Distribution Statement: No restrictions. This document is available to the public through The National Technical
Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161 |
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19. Security Classification
(of this report) Unclassified |
Security Classification. (of
this page) Unclassified |
21. No. of Pages 118 |
22. Price $15.00 |
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Copyright 1996 by IISTPS
All RightsReserved
Library of Congress No. 96-69383
To order, please contact us via the following:
The Mineta Transportation Institute
San JosŽ State University
College of Business
San Jose, CA. 95192-0219
Tel 408/924-7560
Fax 408/924-7565
E-mail: mti@mti.sjsu.edu
Preparedin
cooperation with the State of California, Business, Transportation andHousing
Agency, Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department ofTransportation, Research
and Special Programs Administration, UniversityResearch Institutes program.
Thecontents
of this report reflect the views of the author who is responsible forthe facts
and accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do notnecessarily
reflect the official views or policies of the U.S. Department ofTransportation,
the State of California or IISTPS. This report does notconstitute a standard,
specification or regulation.
Thisdocument
is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department ofTransportation,
University Transportation Centers Program, in the interest ofinformation
exchange. The U.S. Government, State of California and IISTPSassumes no
liability for the contents or use thereof.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreward i
Executive Summary 1
Welcome by Charles Gillingham 3
Sheriff of Santa Clara County
Introduction by Rod Diridon 3
Executive Director, IISTPS
Comments by Rob Vitale 4
Education Director, IISTPS
Presentation Number One: Thomas Savage 7
Chief Security Officer, New York TransitAuthority
ÒLessons Learned By the New York Transit AuthorityFrom
Recent Terrorist AttacksÓ
Presentation Number Two: Patrick Webb 19
Supervisory Special Agent, Federal Bureau
ofInvestigation
ÒResponsibility of Local Authorities When the FBIis
Called in to AssistÓ
Presentation Number Three: Ernest R. Frazier 29
Chief of Police, Amtrack
ÒCould the Arizona DerailmentHave Been Predicted?Ó
Presentation Number Four: Denis Jackson 49
Vice President for Technical Operations,American
Medical Response West, Inc.
ÒEmergencyTerrorism
Response SystemsÓ.
Panel Discussion 59
Closing Comments by Moderator Rod Diridon 77
Appendices 81
Appendix A: NYC Transit: Report on Interagency
Preparedness Exercise 95-3 81
Appendix B: Lessons Learned byNYC Transit From
Recent Terrorist Attacks 91
Appendix C: ATF Bomb
ThreatChecklist 99
Appendix D: H.R. 2949 103
Table of Acronyms 109
I am pleased to forward a copyof the proceedings of the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for SurfaceTransportation Policy Studies (IISTPS) March 1996 Symposium on ÒTerrorism inSurface Transportation.Ó Thissymposium was presented at San JosŽ State University on March 15, 1996, as partof the IISTPS charter of continuing education in the area of SurfaceTransportation Policy.
The topic for this Symposiumwas selected to help satisfy the increased need for awareness of andpreparedness for possible terrorism attacks on the surface transportationsystems within the United States and the world. A group of experts wasassembled to present a summary of their vast experience and concerns in the areasof terrorism to an invited group of delegates drawn from transportationagencies, law enforcement, other government agencies and the private sector.After the formal presentations, time was made available for increasedunderstanding of the various issues through interactive discussions is includedin these proceedings.
Many people helped in the creation of this symposium. Iwould like to thank especially our expert speakers, Tom Savage, Chief SecurityOfficer, New York Transit Authority; Patrick Webb, Supervisory Special Agent,Counter-Terrorism Squad, Federal Bureau of Investigation; Ernest R. Frazier,Chief of Police, Amtrak; and Denis Jackson, Vice President for TechnicalOperations, American Medical Response West, Inc. In addition to our finespeakers, I would like to thank Rod Diridon, Executive Director of IISTPS; RobVitale, Education Director for IISTPS; Dr. Dirk Wassenaar, IISTPS MarketingDirector; Claudia Hull and Patrick A. Rooney, IISTPS Graduate Assistants; andBenedicte Sigwalde, Symposium Assistant, as well as the other IISTPSÕ staffmembers, for their professional assistance in the presentation of thissymposium.
Finally, I hope that you, the reader, will find
theseproceedings to be both stimulating and useful as a guide to further
awarenessin the important areas of surface transportation terrorism response
andprevention.
MilesB.
Welter
SymposiumDirector
The second symposium presentedby the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface TransportationPolicy Studies (IISTPS) was held March 15, 1996, on the San JosŽ StateUniversity campus. This timely discussion was co-sponsored by the Research andSpecial Programs Administration (RSPA) of the United States Department ofTransportation (U.S. DOT) and the California Department of Transportation(Caltrans). The topic, Terrorism in Surface Transportation, was addressed by leading experts in several relatedfields.
Chief Security Officer of theNew York Transit Authority, Tom Savage, described lessons learned from recentterrorist attacks. Mr. Savage spoke not only of past occurrences, but also ofthe challenges presently facing most cities.
FBI Counter-terrorism SquadSupervisory Special Agent, Patrick J. Webb, addressed the responsibilities ofthe local authorities when the FBI is called in to assist. He cited specificincidents of the collaboration now common between agencies, and he spoke ofideas for furthering the effectiveness of such interdependence of affiliatedagencies.
Amtrak Chief of Police, ErnestFrazier, spoke about the Arizona derailment, specifically about whether such anoccurrence can be predicted. He also addressed the significance of proposedSenate Bill 2949 (copy appended). Also speaking tot he assembled group wasDenis Jackson, Vice President for Technical Operations for American MedicalResponse West, the largest ambulance and paramedic provider in the UnitedStates. Mr. Jackson discussed terrorism attacks, similar to the Oklahoma Citybombing and the emergency response systems in place to deal with them.
All of the speakers providedinsight into the problems facing our cities today under the threat of terrorismas it applies to transportation. The value of the symposium was enhanced by thepanel discussion moderator, Rod Diridon, Executive Director of IISTPS. Mr.Diridon holds both national and international leadership positions in the fieldof mass transportation.
TERRORISM
INSURFACE TRANSPORTATION
Second
Symposiumof the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for
SurfaceTransportation
Policy Studies
The second InternationalInstitute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies (IISTPS) symposium, Terrorismin Surface Transportation, began with awelcome by Rod Diridon, Executive Director of the Institute. Diridon introducedthe Chief Law Enforcement Officer for Santa Clara County, Sheriff CharlesÒChuckÓ Gillingham. Gillingham, a directly elected individual, served for manyyears as Deputy Sheriff and then as the Commander of the Jails. Elected to theoffice, he is presently in charge of the entire Santa Clara County SheriffÕsDepartment.
Sheriff Charles Gillingham
After relating a humorousstory, Gillingham addressed the necessity of an ongoing and close workingrelationship with other agencies, like the one presently existing with Amtrakpolice. He stressed the importance of all elements of law enforcementcollaborating to curtail the crime rate.
After acknowledging Rod Diridonfor his fine work with the Institute, Gillingham invited Diridon to introducethe first guest speaker.
Mr. Rod Diridon
Diridon spoke briefly about theInstitute. He explained that the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute forSurface Transportation Policy Studies (IISTPS) at San JosŽ State University was established byCongress in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991(ISTEA). Unique among the nationÕs six University Transportation Institutes,IISTPS focuses on international surface transportation policy issues related toresearch, education, and information transfer. IISTPS receives policy oversightfrom an internationally respected Board of Trustees who represent all of themajor surface transportation modes.
Diridon noted that this was thesecond symposium presented by IISTPS. The first symposium, held on June 6,1995, was on ÒPlanning for Surface Transportation and Land Use.Ó He indicated that the proceedings fromit will be available for purchase shortly. He then invited the audience topurchase a copy of the symposia proceedings.
Next, Diridon introduced thesymposium coordinator, Rob Vitale, an Adjunct Professor at San JosŽ StateUniversity and IISTPSÕ Education Director. VitaleÕs expertise is in marketingwithin private industry. Diridon explained that an effort is being made toenlist the participation of individuals from private industry whose businessexpertise will enhance the academic curriculum of the Institute. He thenwelcomed Adjunct Professor Rob Vitale as one who successfully melds thetheoretical/academic approach with practical business experience.
Mr. Rob Vitale
Vitale spoke briefly about thedevelopment of a Masters of Science Program in Transportation Management. Hesaid it is off to a good start and welcomed inquiries from interested parties.He explained that the symposia series is a part of that education program.Vitale spoke about the dedicated and proficient staff who support the programand introduced Miles Welter, Project Director for this symposium, ProfessorDirk Wassenaar, Marketing Project Director, as well as other staff members.
Vitale spoke about theeducation program as being different from what one would expect when thinkingof a MasterÕs degree. He explained that the program is designed to breaktypical paradigms in the academic world. For example, the video of this symposiumwill be used in classrooms, and hopefully presenters from the symposia serieswill also speak to our students.
Vitale also said that classeswill be conducted via televideo all over the world as this program isdeveloped, a concept called distance learning. When 15 or 20 people gather atany facility, whether at the Santa Clara County Transit Agency or Caltrans, ora group in Minnesota or New York or New Jersey, SJSU plans to make available tothem classes for a Master of Science degree in transportation management.Vitale stressed that this program is specialized for transportation management,and SJSU plans to Òpush the envelopeÓ with this new teaching technique.
Vitale stated that the mostdistinctive element of this program is its goal to be contemporary, to satisfyspecific needs that the transportation professionals have communicated areneeded in the future careers of their employees. He explained that the programis non-traditional by design, not accident or oversight, and offered the willingnessto listen to other new concepts. Vitale identified this program as a verydifferent type of masterÕs program and one hoped to be the model of newmasterÕs education of the next century.
Our first speaker, Thomas J. Savage is Chief SecurityOfficer for the New York City Transit Authority. Savage is responsible for theexecutive direction of New York City TransitÕs strategic securityfunctionsÐpassenger and employee security and property protection. He has primaryresponsibility for coordinating these issues with the MayorÕs Office ofCriminal Justice and the Transit Bureau of the New York City Police Department.
It is unfortunate that transit professionals are nowmandated to add Terrorism to all industry related meetings and conferences. Itis only March, and this symposium is the second I and many of you have attendedthis year. Terrorism is a topic of grave and growing concern. As day-to-daytransit operating managers, our responsibilities dramatically changed with thefollowing incidents:
á
The World Trade
CenterbombingÐFebruary 1993;
á
Sarin Gas Attack in
theTokyo subway systemÐMarch 1995;
á
Paris commuter
trainbombingÐJuly 1995;
á
London bus
systembombingÐFebruary 1996; and
á
Jerusalem bus
systembombingÐMarch 1996.
The fact is clear that we must prepare ourselves
forthe threat of Terrorism just as we prepare for fire or any other disaster.
This presentation will provide an overview of recentexperiences in public transportation in New York. It will help you identifywhat impact such events have had on policies and what changes are beinginstituted as a result of our changing times.
á
The largest
publictransit system in North AmericaÐwe account for about 40% of all mass
transittrips nationwideÐand the worldÕs tenth largest system;
á
The subway and bussystem
operates 24 hours every day and carries an average of 4.7 million
dailypassengers and 1.5 billion annual passengers;
á
NYC Transit has a
staffof approximately 43,000;
á
An annual
operatingbudget of $3.6 billion; and,
á
Annual
capitalexpenditures of more than $1 billion.
á
The subway serves
3.5million customers on an average weekday and about 1.1 billion passengers
ayear. The 25 subway lines are interconnected, offering free transfers
betweenlines permitted at more than 50 locations;
á
The worldÕs
largestsubway fleet, with 5,803 cars, is now entirely new or overhauled. Almost
allthe cars have air conditioning andÐsince May 1989Ðall are graffiti free;
á
The subway fleet
travelsabout 300 million revenue miles each year. The longest ride on the
system withno change of trains is 31 miles;
á
About 60 percent of
thesystemÕs 468 subway stations are underground. The others are located
alongelevated structures or are built on embankments or in open cuts;
á
Located within
stationfacilities are: 3,180 turnstiles, 742 token booths, 60 elevators, and
161escalators; and
á
The organization
iscomprised of approximately 25,000 employees distributed between two
primarydivisionsÐService Delivery and Maintenance.
á
The Department of
Busesoperates 201 local and 30 express bus routes providing about 49,000
dailyrevenue trips;
á
The systemÕs 3,751
busescarry about 1.2 million customers daily and 450 million annually;
á
Each rush hour, morethan
3,000 buses are in operation, picking up customers at more than 14,000
busstops;
á
New York City bus
routestotal 1,671 miles. Buses travel about 104 million miles annually. The
longestlocal bus route is 16.5 miles and the longest express route is 27.3
miles;
á
Buses are maintained
andcleaned in 19 depots. The fleet is 100 percent graffiti-free, air
conditioned,either new or overhauled and equipped with wheelchair lifts;
á
To keep buses on
themove, we use 36 million gallons of diesel fuel;
á
We are working todevelop
a New Technology Bus that will have reduced emissions and improved fueleconomy.
Among the prototypes being researched:
á
Battery
PoweredBusesÐEquipped with electric motors and rechargeable batteries;
á
Electric
HybridBusesÐEquipped with electric motors and smaller diesel engines; and
á
Compressed Natural
Gas(CNG) BusesÐDesigned to burn cleaner fuel (32 buses are in actual use).
á
As of January 1996,
ourfleetÕs average age is 8.57 years and is distributed as follows:
á
54% are the GMC
RTS-04model;
á
8% are the GMC RTS-06model;
á
27% are the TMC
RTS-06model; and
á
11% are the BIA Orion
5model.
á
The organization
iscomprised of approximately 12,000 employees and includes 7,500 bus
operatorsand 2,700 bus maintenance staff.
á
On February 26, 1993,New
York City experienced terrorism firsthand. The World Trade Center
bombingtrapped thousands of people and caused injury and death to six persons.
Bus andsubway service was disrupted.
á
The World Trade
Centerbombing vividly demonstrated to New York City Transit and the New York
PoliceDepartment (NYPD) that the everyday crime/security concerns were no
longer theonly threat to the safety of our passengers and employees.
Recognizing this,Transit and the NYPD organized an interagency fact finding
task force onterrorismÐchaired by Deputy Inspector Francis OÕHare of the NYPDÕs
TransitBureau. To enhance understanding of the dangers and disruptiveness
ofTerrorism, task force representatives traveled to England, Italy, France
andeventually Japan to study and evaluate procedures on terrorism response.
á
The attached task
forcerecommendations (see appendix) are continually being reviewed. After the
Saringas attack in Japan, the Transit and NYPD task force reviewed security
issuesin an effort to prevent and/or mitigate a similar occurrence. The task
forcemade five recommendations, of which three have been implemented. These
threeresulted in:
á
Information and
guidanceabout gas attacks being given to employees;
á
The establishment
ofventilation procedures for subway cars, stations and facilities; and
á
The submission of newgas
attack procedures for coordination of effort between Transit and other
cityagencies.
á
The two
remainingrecommendations are still under review and deal with aspects of
station design:
á
The task force
suggestedcertain changes in how stations are laid out, including the
elimination ofcertain design features such as open or idle spaces behind token
booths andconcession stands which might be used for the concealment of
explosive or toxicdevices. Our problem with implementing is the sheer size of
the system, as Ihave previously mentioned. The cost of correcting every
potential designproblem in one station alone would be enormous; to make similar
corrections systemwidewould be financially impossible. As stations are being
rehabilitated designchanges are being incorporated to enhance security.
á
A second
suggestionrecommended the removal of trash receptacles in subway stations. This
was donein Tokyo only during the Sarin alert, and they have since been
reinstalled. Theremoval of trash receptacles creates problems of trash buildup
and track fires.The question of which creates the greatest safety concern for
our passengersand employees is challenging, and careful consideration must be
given of allpossible results of the recommendation before it can be put into
effect.
á
The initial task
forcerecommendations focused on three areas of responsibility:
á
Transit
PolicingProcedures;
á
Facilities
Management;and
á
Bus and
SubwayOperations.
Transit Policing ProceduresÐIn addition to the following procedures,
interactionwith NYC Transit personnel is stressed to ensure a coordinated
effort:
á
NYPD Transit
Bureauofficers inspect all parts of their post; taking the time to ensure that
thisinspection is done thoroughly and conscientiously;
á
Bus depot and
subwaystation inspections include items such as solar cans, sand boxes,
concessionbooths, construction sites, or other areas where materials or devices
may beconcealed;
á
Being alert
forsuspicious packages, persons, odors, or activities on or around
transitfacilities;
á
Ensuring that
homelesspersons are not residing in any buses, subway cars, stations, tunnels,
or otherfacility;
á
Knowing where
allemergency equipmentÐsuch as fire extinguishers, stretchers, bull
horns,etc.Ðare kept. Ensuring that the equipment is in working order and
beingfamiliar with how these items are used;
á
Reporting forappropriate
attention any condition that would be dangerous in anemergencyÐe.g. an
inoperable public address system, etc.;
á
Checking the NYC
Transitpasses or IDÕs of persons entering or exiting nonpublic areas such
asunderwater tunnelsÐremembering that safety vests, uniforms, or hard hats can
beobtained anywhere and are not valid proof of employment;
á
Being familiar
withmobilization procedures during an emergency;
á
Inspecting fan shaftsand
emergency exits in the vicinity of the underwater tunnels;
á
Equipping the
TransitBureau and NYPD command staffÐCaptains and aboveÐwith radios that have
beenprogrammed with other metropolitan area transit agenciesÕ frequencies
toenhance coordination during emergencies;
á
Commencing high
profilepolicing at two NYC transportation hubsÐGrand Central Station and Penn
Station.This policing coordinates individual command personnel with detachments
fromthe Homeless Outreach Unit and the Vandal Unit;
á
The NYPD Transit
BureauCrime Prevention Unit conducts surveys of transit facilities. The
surveyresults are included in the planning and design stages of new and
renovatedconstruction projects; and
á
Last and most important,because
practice is a necessary part of any emergency response training, NewYork City
has recently staged two drills to test emergency response to gasattacks on
public transportation such as those recently suffered in Japan.While all
personnel were informed at the time that the incidents to which theywere
responding were a drill, no advance notice had been given, and the mannerin
which they responded was the same as if the incidents had been genuineattacks.
Appendix A is the critique of the September 23, 1995, drill.
Facilities ManagementÐThere are three administrative facilities that
housebus, subway and administrative staff. Facilities managers conduct
evacuationdrills in coordination with the NYPD Transit Bureau and the NYC
FireDepartment. Additionally, the following steps have been taken to
improvesecurity:
á
Contracted for a newfire
command center;
á
Stationary Engineers
arebeing qualified and licensed as Assistant Fire Safety Directors;
á
Increased the number
ofFire Wardens;
á
HeadquartersÕ buildingmanagerÕs
office moved to the front entrance for higher visibility andaccessibility;
á
Reevaluated
emergencyequipment, corrected deficiencies and established preventive
maintenance;
á
Rekeyed all
mechanicaland electrical closets, pump rooms, boiler rooms to single lock
system understrict controls;
á
Acquired 20 radios
forbuilding maintenance staff to improve communications during emergencies; and
á
Reevaluated mail
roomproceduresÐsee Appendix BÐand purchased mail scanning equipment.
Bus and Subway Operations are initiating aggressively effective methods
toaddress terrorist activity. Initiatives in place include:
á
Implementing use of
theU.S. Treasury Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (AFT) Bomb
ThreatChecklistÐsee Appendix CÐto guide Transit Command Center personnel on
gatheringpertinent information to pass on to police;
á
Implementing
jointTransit Police training programs with bus and subway operations to
increaseparticipation and awarenessÐthis partnership is important when dealing
withservice disruptions. Courses include Track Safety for non-Transit Bureau
policeofficers and Track Safety Recertification for Transit Bureau Homeless
OutreachUnit and Vandal Squad;
á
Establishing offsite
commandcenters for communications redundancy.
á
Interagency
DrillsÐtheDepartment of Buses (DOB) is assisting the FBI and NYPD Emergency
Services Unittest various apprehension tactics. Tubular assault training is
being conductedon Transit DOB rolling stock. The goal is to develop tactics to
maximize rescueeffectiveness. Bus maintenance staff participates in developing
the training byproviding technical assistance in the following areas:
á
Specific bus
structuraldesign features;
á
Fuel tank
systemlocations;
á
HVAC
systemspecifications;
á
Onboard radio and
PAcommunications;
á
Bullet penetrationtests;
and
á
General bus
maintenancetips.
á
Improvements
ToPreventive Measures At Bus FacilitiesÐthe Department of Buses and the Transit
Bureaudeveloped the following list of improvements now in use:
á
New York City
Transitproperty contiguous to bus depots should be illuminated with High
IntensityDischarge (HID) lamps, and fixtures and poles should be marked in a
permanentand legible manner;
á
Bus depot overhead
doorsshould be:
á
Kept in the
closedposition whenever operating conditions permit;
á
Plans for
motorizingoverhead doors should be developed and included in all new and
rehabilitationconstruction designs; and
á
All vehicle
entrancesshould have ÒopenworkÓ ventilating gates.
á
The Plant &Equipment
Maintenance Unit should develop and implement a preventativemaintenance program
with accountable record keeping.
á
Perimeter
pedestriandoors should be:
á
Maintained in a state
ofgood repair, operate smoothly and fit properly, include panic hardware,
propersignage, operating door checks and appropriate handles;
á
Pedestrian
doorsroutinely used by DOB personnel should be equipped with digital locks
orelectronic photo identification cards. Digital lock combinations should
bechecked after each job pick.
á
Exterior depot
doorsshould be:
á
Numbered inside and
outwith large, highly legible numbers; and
á
Lighted by HighIntensity
Discharge (HID) lamps with individual photo cell controls.
á
Interior doors should
benumbered and the space identified as to content and usage.
á
Internal stairwaysshould
be equipped with energy efficient vandal resistant lighting fixtures.
á
Employee parking
shouldbe:
á
Only allowed
inauthorized areas;
á
Include two sets
ofÒspeed bumpsÓ inside the entrance gate area;
á
Restricted to
employeevehicles that are registered for Transit DOB parking permits; and
á
Compliant with New
YorkCity Department of Motor Vehicle parking regulations.
á
Perimeter fencing
shouldbe:
á
Kept in a state of
goodrepair;
á
Upgraded to includerazor
ribbon; and
á
Maintained by
removingall vegetation along the side and applying defoliant on a regularly
scheduledbasis.
á
ÒNetworkingÓ is one
ofthe most current buzzwords in todayÕs workplace. It is of particular
importanceto groups such as those working in counter-terrorism.
á
ÒTerrorismÓ has
demandedthat we exchange ideas and experiences and foster cooperative thinking.
Astransit professionals we must do everything possible to minimize the effect
ofterrorism incidents.
á
Here are a few
examplesof supporting the ÒNetworkÓ:
á
We must rethink designelements
and equipment within our systems;
á
We must develop
trainingto help our employees recognize and differentiate types of emergency
situationsand the actions they require;
á
We must become expertsin
a new range of chemical and biological substances;
á
We must practice
andrefine our emergency mobilization and rescue procedures as never before;
á
We must elevate
goodhousekeeping and station inspections by employees to the highest priority;
and
á
We must cooperate in
newways with agencies and city officials who share different aspects of
theoverwhelming responsibility.
In closing, I hope this presentation is helpful
andthank you for the information I will learn from you during this
symposium.(Further information is available in appendices.)
At the conclusion of Mr. SavageÕs speech, the followingquestions were asked and answered:
Q.
I understand
yourdedication to housekeeping and daily inspections and cleaning up the
stations andtunnels and so on. Is there any specific thing that the Transit Authority
isdoing for parking garages that may be close to your property or on
yourproperty? ItÕs one thing
toinspect for trash and packages, but itÕs another thing to look inside a van.
A.
What weÕve
done,particularly at our bus garages, is instituted a parking permit system.
Again,itÕs common sense, but we never had that system before. Prior to the
TradeCenter bombing, bus operators, bus maintenance workers and subway workers
wouldjust pull up to the entrance gate at one of the yards and, usually,
becausethey knew the people at the gates, gain admittance. Now we have
instituted aparking permit-type system where every employee who asks for a
parking space onour property goes through a procedure, fills out forms, and
actually gets anofficial Transit Authority parking permit. All of our parking
procedures arereviewed with the NYPD and the Department of Motor Vehicles, and
specific rulesare followed. In addition, any new garage that we build, or any
new facilityusually has a gate that goes up and down. Speed bumps have been put
in, and wehave upgraded transit property protection booths. So yes, weÕre
attempting tochange the way we have done business for 90 years and institute
changes such asthese wherever we can. We donÕt have the speed bumps and gates
in everylocation yet, but everybody uses the parking permit. There have been
timeswhere a car is found on the property with no permit; we have sent out a
groupof special inspectors and opened the trunk of the car. We have
communicatedwith our employees, and their unions, and they all know that we
will open thetrunk of a car thatÕs parked on the property under reasonable
circumstances.ThatÕs what weÕve been doing.
Q.
You talked quite
abit about changes in procedures and practices. Are there other new
policiesthat youÕve had to implement as a result of the learning that youÕve
gonethrough? If so, could you
possiblysummarize what some of those were?
A.
In ouradministrative
headquarters we are starting to put turnstiles into all thebuildings, and weÕre
putting in an automated fare collection system in NewYork. Pretty soon
everybody is going to have a swipe card. That, plus havingtransit property
protection agents at the entrances to all major facilities, isproviding better
control of who get sin and who gets out. The subway and bussystem is so large
that you really canÕt do anything that would impactpassenger flow at the
turnstile areas at stations. Unfortunately, we recently hadan incident where an
individualÐwho has just been convicted of thiscrimeÐbrought in a homemade bomb.
He had everything in a shopping bag, andthere is no way that our transit police
can stop every person going into thestation.
We constantly train our plain clothes police officers andour uniformed police officers to be alert for smells that are unusual; somechemicals give out a foul odor. For the most part, we really canÕt createprocedures that negatively impact the three million passengers going in and outof the system each day.
Q.
Your
transportationfacilities are mainly what we call linear targets for purposes of
rescue andthings of that nature. Do you have teams that are trained in how to
operate allthe equipment on a train or a bus, and are they trained in linear
take-downs?
A.
Actually, thisMonday
weÕre having one of a series of practice drills with the FBI and theNYPD in New
York. What the Transit Authority is doing is giving the JointTerrorist Task
Force a bus to do whatever they want. ItÕs really to practice.In addition, four
times yearly we do mock drills. Then we send maintenancetechnicians to teach everything
there is to know about the buses.
The last drill included every major public securityagency in New YorkÐthe Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services Department,the local hospitals, and the FBI. In New York every private and public entitythat would be affected by a terrorist attack has been brought into the trainingand practice process. As an example, in our drills you will find certainpassengers who have hurt their back, or maybe they got a slight cut; we sendthat group to one hospital. A group that would be more seriously injured wouldbe sent to a closer hospital. We have a few hospitals in New York City whichare experts in burn recovery. ThatÕs one place where we can get helicopters, ifthey are required.
Q.
The manpower in
afacility as large as yours gets quite expensive. What role have you placed,
orwhat importance have you placed on electronic security systems access
control,CCTV, etc., to supplement or augment the manpower?
A.
The budget is a
realproblem in New York. My department alone had to cut $2 million out of
theoperating budget for the calendar year. I have a very limited budget to put
insophisticated security systems in existing facilities. Where I have
moreflexibility is in the capital budget, where we spend about one billion
dollarsa year on facilities and rolling stock. Everything that we buy or
build,whether it be a new subway car, a bus, or a new facility, reflects
designeffort from the very beginning. And thatÕs where we put resources into
CCTVÕsand swipe card systems. WeÕve been looking at the hand print system,
golden eyeif you want to call it that; as we go forward certainly every
facility that wehave is being upgraded, and we are including more sophisticated
equipment inthe new buildings. ThatÕs not to say that if we identified a
serious problem inan older facility we wouldnÕt do anything. We certainly
would, but itÕs tough,and IÕm sure that everybody here who has responsibility
for an operating budgetwould know that weÕre running up against the same issue.
But to answer yourquestion, yes we do it as much as we possibly can. I hope
that was clear foryou.
Our next speaker is SupervisorySpecial Agent Patrick J. Webb. Webb is not only a Special Agent BombTechnician, but also a Supervisory Special Agent for the FBI Counter-TerrorismSquad. Webb has been involved in many notorious terrorism cases, including theUnabomb Task Force.
The majority of my career hasbeen spent in the Bay Area, and I think in terms of this particular topic withthe wide range of transportation facilities in the Bay Area. ItÕs nice to beable to talk about this. When we look at the wide range of facilities,including BART and CalTrain, they represent a wide range of targets. I happento live in Marin, and I just noticed that the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway andTransportation Authority, the Bridge District, bought the right-of-way all theway to Willits, so at some point we are probably going to be able to takesurface transportation to commute to San Francisco from Willits, if you wouldwant to do that. That again just adds to the variety and complexity of whatweÕre looking at.
Among the things I want to do today is perhaps
justassuage your fears in some way, tell you we are here to helpÐin spite of
beingfrom the governmentÐand to give you some reassurance that youÕre not in
thisthing alone. I want to talk a little bit about the background of
terrorismweÕve seen recently, particularly as it relates domestically to the
UnitedStates, the FBIÕs jurisdiction in those affairs, some of the current
trends andinitiatives underway, and the perhaps talk a little bit about what
you can doand what needs to be done.
Domestically, and perhaps inthe broadest sense, things arenÕt as bad as they seem to be. In fact, inreported terrorist attacks, the way the FBI looks at itÐattacks claimed bygroups and individuals with political motivesÐin 1994 there were no reportedattacks in the United States. I used to call 1993 the year of the asterisk,because it was the year of the World Trade Center bombing. ItÕs like looking atbaseball statistics for the years when they had strikes. There was always a bigasterisk next to the batting average. That was so far Õ93 because in the WorldTrade Center tragedy, six people were killed, a thousand injured, and there wasa lot of damage, $700 million damage.
And then all of the sudden 1995 came along, and it becamethe year of the asterisk and ampersand together because 1995 was a very unusualyear. It was an unusual yearÐmaybe almost a wake up call to AmericaÐbecause ofthe wide range and scale of domestic terrorism attacks that we saw, the type ofattacks that we saw, and particularly the motives we started to see. In oneway, the wake up call began with the Ohm Shin Richio attack in Japan in Marchof Õ95. But for those of you who have looked at the history of that group, asearly as 1994 that cult had started a chemical attack with a test run on asmall village in Japan where people were killed.
And even after the March attack, attacks continuedwell
into July at other railroad stations and subway facilities using differenttypes
of weapons and different delivery methods. The attack in March took theworld
stage, but everybody just kind of zoned out on that one thing, and theydid
continue until July of Õ95.
In 1995, on April 19th, the Oklahoma
Citybombing occurred. 169 people were killed, and many more injured. Just last
weekI saw a report being prepared for the prosecution that the governor has ordereda
damage survey, and they believe the cumulative damage up to this point isabout
a $700 million dollar hit to the Oklahoma economy, including all of theexpenses
and business disruption and that kind of thing.
I served nine months on the Unabomb Task Force, and itÕsstill existent in our office, so I feel constrained to mention that in April ofÕ95 we had a Unabomb attack which killed a victim at the California ForestryAssociation in Sacramento.
That has become a terroristrelated case; actually it used to be on my squadÐIÕm the supervisor who canÕtsolve Unabomb. Now there are about 120 agents across the country working on it.In our office alone there are three squads headed by an Assistant Agent inCharge, and Jim Freeman, the Agent in Charge, my boss, runs that case each andevery day. The April Unabomb attack was coupled with the demand of the Unabombsubject to publish his manuscript. It was eventually published by the NewYork Times and Washington Post in a joint effort in September. The reason I mentionthat is the Unabomb is not only a frustrating investigation; in fact it is thelongest unsolved bombing series in the United States. It even surpasses GeorgeMatesky who did bombings starting in 1938 and ending in Õ56 in New York City.But Unabomb continues to go on; IÕm not sure that the subject will be satisfiedwith the publishing of his manuscript.
He also has learned to tweak the public interest.
Hedid that in June of last year when he sent a letter to the San
FranciscoChronicle with a small threat thatsaid, ÒIÕve put a bomb in an
airliner out of Los Angeles International whichwill go off within the next six
days.Ó Perhaps he didnÕt know, but it was right around the 4th
ofJuly holiday, the second most busy air travel holiday for California in
thecalendar year. Once we got that threatÐand IÕll tell you frankly we got
thatinformation at the office at about 4:00 and spoke to the FAA at 5:00Ðthey
put alock down on California airports. In the six California airports that
areaffected there are about 280,000 people a day traveling. I ended up having
totake a package overnight to DC with a letter, and spent the next
daydispatching Bureau Bomb Technicians to Los Angeles to examine the air
freight.At one point we had eighteen tractor trailers with air freight stacked
up atLAX that had to be screened before it was released to go on airliners. So
theUnabomber again picked a fairly public transportation target. When he got
hismanifesto manuscript published, he said it was just a big joke. By that
point,however, the whole system was choked down considerably.
To go back to the terrorism issues in Õ95, we had
theAmtrak derailment in Arizona in October; one person was killed and many
othersinjured. We in the FBI have named that investigation Split Rail; I
brought mycase agent with me today, Tom Stutler, who has done most of the Split
Railinvestigation in this area. We were impacted a lot by that because the
SouthernPacific used to be headquartered here, and all their personnel records
arehere, and all the disgruntled employees are here, and itÕs been our mission
inlife to deal with each one of them. If you look back to Õ95, the scale and
typeof attacks and particularly the motives, carry again into this year as we
startapproaching the anniversary of the Waco takeover. The anniversary of
course isApril 19th, which is also the anniversary of the Oklahoma
Citybombing. The Ruby Ridge incident has provided a motivation for a whole
group ofpeople to hate the government.
In the years IÕve been in the terrorism business, weÕvecome to recognize that terrorism is cyclical. We do have preventions; thatÕspart of our missionÐto detect and prevent terrorism attacks. We do havepreventions; weÕll work up a case, make arrests, issues come and go, and weÕvebeen able to deter attacks. There have been two prominent deterrences in thelast couple of years, one is a case we call TERRSTOP, which came out of theWorld Trade Center bombing in New York City. YouÕll recall, a blind sheik andmany of his followers were arrested and have been convicted and sentenced forplanning to blow up the tunnels and transit systems, the United Nations, and inparticular the FBI buildingÐa kind of a motivation to solve that one! So we take credit, and we take pride indeterring those attacks.
Another international attack that would have had
adevastating effect on transportation in general is a case we call Manila
Air.Manila Air is due to go to trial at the end of April or early May in New
YorkCity. Manila Air is a conspiracy that began in the Philippines. Ramsey
Yousef,who was eventually arrested as one of the World Trade Center bombing
subjects,has been indicted for that case. Ramsey Yousef and a group of his
compatriotshad already completed one bombing attack on a 747 aircraft. It
happened on aJapanese Airlines plane; they had boarded the plane and left an
explosivedevice that went off over the Sea of China. It killed one passenger,
but theplane made an emergency landing at Okinawa. Subsequently they were
arrested inthe Philippines. Yousef got away and was eventually re-arrested in
Pakistan.But from others who were arrested, we discovered that they had plans
to put sixdifferent explosive devices on 747s flying to the West Coast. Two
were to cometo San Francisco, two to LA, one to Honolulu, one to Seattle. Can
you imaginethe impact on the American public if six 747s had come out of the
air on thesame day? And they had
plannedthis with the use of a lap top computer Ð this is kind of the high
techterrorist. When they were arrested, the lap top computer along with all
theother evidence was seized. It showed where they had figured out the
flightschedules, where they could get aboard, leave the device and get off and
letthe plane fly on. Those are two of the deterrent actions that we were able
tosuccessfully pull off. Perhaps, as that case goes to trial, the public
willfinally wake up.
I might mention that in terms of jurisdiction the
FBIis designated, not only by statute but also by policy, as the
leadcounter-terrorism agency in the United States. WeÕve always had
thatjurisdiction, particularly in a terrorist incident claimed by a group. In
termsof prevention we still have that; we try to react and prevent at the same
time.There are some other federal agencies, particularly ATF, that may
havejurisdiction in certain incidents that may not be claimed, but the
AttorneyGeneral has the authority to override and give the FBI the jurisdiction
in anycase. As a result of a lot of the activities in 1995 the President
recentlysigned, late last year, a classified Presidential Decision Directive #39
whichexpanded the FBIÕs jurisdiction in a lot of areas, particularly in the
chemicaland biological area, and put the FBI, whether we like it or not, into a
lot ofconsequence management. Now we actually run the incident and at a
pertinenttime turn it over to a consequence management agency such as FEMA, the
FederalEmergency Management Agency. ThatÕs a big responsibility for us, to be
able tomanage the incidents in all their complexity. A lot of that stemmed
fromsituations that occurred at the Oklahoma City bombing where there were a
lot ofagencies in charge, and we were not only trying to manage the incident,
butalso convict the bad guys.
The FBI is present in theinternational terrorism field. While IÕm going to try to stick more to thedomestic side, on the international terrorism side, we have a lot of otherstatutes that apply to American citizens, particularly overseas where there isan overseas homicide or an overseas kidnapping. The FBI has extraterritorialjurisdiction and can actually dispatch teams and work those cases up. WeÕve hadconvictions in extraterritorial cases; we bring those people back from overseasand convict them. The Manila Air case that I mentioned is a good example of theaircraft and motor vehicle statute that we also enforce. In the area ofProtection of Foreign Officials, there is a foreign government involved withthose here in the United States, and those diplomats and their facilities arecovered under FBI jurisdiction. And of course any conspiracy based activity,either foreign or domestic, we can look at under the terrorism guidelines.
I might mention the terrorismguidelines. ItÕs very easy to say the FBI has expansive terrorism jurisdiction,but we actually do work under rule of law and policy. Sometimes the policy istighter than the law. On the international terrorism side, we work underAttorney General guidelines which are promulgated by the Department of Justice.This gives me, for example, the authority as a supervisor to open a case. Andthen there are times lines as to how long we can investigate the case, andreporting standards, and weÕre quite severely looked at in the way we conductthose investigations. Domestic cases have the same types of guidelines. Infact, in some cases the domestic case guidelines are even tighter as to whatcreates a predicate action that allows us to investigate or to begin aninvestigation, and that threshold can be very hard to define.
We struggle, I wonÕt say daily,but often with what we can open and what we cannot open, and what makes thethreshold to make a case work. We are no longer in the business (when I firstbegan in the FBI we probably did it very well) of just collecting forcollectingÕs sake. We have to have a real reason to collect on individuals andgroups. There is a strong emphasis on First Amendment rights, and we do thatand deal with it in terms of the guidelines. If we get information that showsthat a group or individual is about to commit, or is planning to commit, acriminal act, we have no problem at all opening a case. But just going out andcollecting license numbers of people at a meeting for a group we think we maynot like, we just donÕt do that anymore. ThatÕs a kind of result of theexcesses of the Ô60Õs and Ô70Õs, but within the framework of how we do ourcases now weÕve become very used to that. Each case stands on its own merits.
One of the things that ChiefFrazier mentioned earlier, and that Tom Savage mentioned, is the concept of howthe FBI investigates terrorism cases. One of the things that weÕve been verysuccessful at is the creation and operation of Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Theone in New York is perhaps the model for the country. I think the New York JTTFbegan in Õ76 after the FALN bombings. The supervisor there is a good friend ofmine and has a huge staff, about 48 officers and agents working now. The way werun terrorism task forces and how they exist in Chicago, Newark, Washington,DC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Los Angeles is that we bring state andfederal local law enforcement officers together. We actually create and write aMemorandum of Understanding. In the case of local officers, the FBI basicallypays their overtime. We give them cars, beepers, phones, office space. Theywork right along with FBI agents. The International Terrorism Task Force in NewYork has Secret Service agents, INS agents, Department of State securityagents, diplomatic security agents, ATF agents, and Customs agents workingright alongside the FBI agents. They have the New York City PD, the PortAuthority PD, the Transit Police; it is truly an extraterritorial approach todoing terrorism cases. Here in California, in Los Angeles, the LA TerrorismTask Force has both the SheriffÕs Office and the Police Department workingtogether. ThatÕs the wave of the future. The first couple years the jointterrorism task forces were run, it was a new concept; now it just becomes runof the mill in the way we do business. I think their success across the countryshows that, particularly when we start talking about things like specialevents. ThatÕs one of the things we have to deal with like the Olympics, or theRepublic or Democratic conventions this year, the World Cup, many of the otherthings weÕve done. Having those task forces even drawn together for those kindsof efforts means a great deal.
In terms of domestic terrorism initiatives, the FBIhas
seen this grow in the last year, and part of it came out with somethingthat the
public and even law enforcement may not have paid much attention to.That is, a
supplemental appropriation was passed almost immediately after theOklahoma City
bombing by the Congress. They did that one fairly quickly, butthey still canÕt
get their act together to pass the Counter-terrorism Bill. Inthe supplemental
appropriation that was passed after OKBomb, the Oklahoma Cityincident, one of
the big things that it did was to establish a domesticcounter-terrorism
analysis center. WeÕve always had a very similar thing on theinternational
side, and itÕs headquartered at the CIA. The FBI hasparticipation in that, but
on the domestic side they are just now starting toput it together. It will have
liaison with and direct participation by about 24federal government agencies;
those of us who work in the field have beeninstructed to create a very vigorous
liaison.
At the conclusion of WebbÕs speech, the
followingquestions were asked and answered:
Q.
What is the
standarddefinition of terrorism?
A.
I didnÕt bring
mystandard definition because there are four definitions and unfortunately we
usethe one which is, Òintimidation by the threat of force and violence to
achievepolitical aims or goals.Ó
TheState Department uses another one, the Agency uses another one,
anyone tryingto finish his Ph.D. or graduate studies uses a different one. I
think mostinclude Òthe use of violence for political endsÓ as a central
component.
Q.
You talk
aboutcooperation and sharing of information as key to finding a solution to
thisproblem. In Italy we have learned that this is particularly important. IÕm
sureyou are aware of the terrible decade of the 80Õs in Italy, but actually
acertain kind of technology helped a lot in solving the problem. It was
atechnology that came from the U.S.; it was signal intelligence. It helped
crackdown a very large part of the Red Brigades. There is an aspect of thistechnology
that comes from intelligence agencies which traditionally is noteasily shared.
Today, however, terrorism is more than ever an internationalphenomenon. Where
do you see these interest shifts in terms of sharinginformation and technology
across the border in attempting to solve theseproblems?
A.
I
thinkinternationally they already occur across the border. The Trevy Group and
otherworking groups deal with international terrorism issues on that type of
scale.I think the problem arises, and we face it. I see it also on the
jointterrorism task forces. Part of the problem comes in not only the sharing
of theinformationÐbecause the information may be able to stand by itselfÐbut
fromwhat collection technique was used to derive it. Collection techniques
aregoing to continue to be a problem, but they are also becoming better and
moresophisticated. ThatÕs going to continue to be problematic, because weÕre
notgoing to sacrifice the technique over the long run for that one little bit
ofinformation now.
IÕll tell you how we deal with it on the terrorismtask
force. Everybody who works on a joint terrorism task force is cleared
foranything priority to the FBI.
We do a full background investigation on them,
theydonÕt report to their Chief, they become a fully compatible part of
theterrorism task force. WeÕve done that in this area for the World Cup here
atStanford. For that we brought in officers and gave them a clearance. We
clearedthem for the information, and we wonÕt sacrifice public safety because
wedidnÕt tell somebody something. WeÕre going to have to get that
informationout, and the way we do it is to clear the agency or the officer so
that we cangive them the information, and then at the end of the event, the
clearanceexpires.
Q.
There is a lot
ofÒespionageÓ going on between Òfriendlies.Ó I recently went to a seminar
whereit looked like the U.S., among other countries, is a target for people who
areseeking to gain more technological information so they can control a lot of
ourcomputer systems which deal with the exchange and collation of information.
Ininternational terrorist incidents, are we going to share some of
ourtechnological breakthroughs with those other groups?
A.
I think we will.
Ifyou look at what the President outlined yesterday in relation to sharing withIsrael,
one half of the one hundred million dollars worth of aid and equipmentis going
to be technology. And thatÕs technology that was developed in theUnited States.
In the bomb business, we see a lot of stuff that originated inBritain and other
countries, and we get to use it, fine craft it, and take itout of metric and
put it into our own dimensions. So I think thatÕs going tocontinue. Our office
is now founding a squad that actually specializes in internationalcomputer
crime. We have one here in the South Bay already that does chip theftsand that
kind of thing.
We are actually putting a squadtogether thatÕs going to look at international computer crime. ItÕs called theProtection of the National Information Infrastructure. WeÕre going to do that alot, and one of the things that will also help us is a thing called theNational Trade Secrets Act in Congress. If Congress passes that, it will giveus more jurisdiction and authority to look at stealing, even corporate stealingand that kind of thing. Nowadays somebody can go to a company here in theValley and take $100 million dollars worth of R&D product, put it in theirpocket and get on a plane and fly out of SFO, non-stop to a competing foreign country.If we arrest them the only thing they can be charged with is holding that $2.50diskette in their pocket. Propriety information, R&D information, things ofthat nature, are not yet against the law to steal. It becomes more of a civilbattle; thatÕs what the National Trade Secrets Act would overcome.
Our next speaker, Ernest R.Frazier, Chief of Police for Amtrak, also known as the National RailroadPassenger Corporation, comes to us from their headquarters in Philadelphia.HeÕs been with Amtrak for 15 years; before that he was with law enforcement inMaryland and in the U.S. Army. He has a BS and is a candidate for a JD atRutgers. HeÕs on the executive committee of the American Association ofRailroads, as well as the Transit Police and is a nominee for an appointment tothe terrorist committee of the IACP.
GoodMorning,
ladies and gentlemen!
My name is Ernest R. Frazier, and I am the Chief
ofPolice of AmericaÕs National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK).
Today, I would like to discuss an issue that, in
thenarrowest sense, is extremely important to Amtrak in its operation of
anational rail passenger service. This same issue, in the broadest sense,
isextremely important to every citizen in the United States whose
fundamentalright to travel throughout this country, conceptually, has been
constrained.
As indicated in the InstituteÕs Transportation SymposiumBrochure, I am here to discuss the intentional, premeditated derailment ofAmtrakÕs Sunset Limited in Hyder, Arizona on October 9, 1995, an act describedby Amtrak President, Tom Downs, as an act of Òcowardice.Ó
However, before discussing the specific
factssurrounding the derailment, I would like to provide you with some
preliminaryinformation about Amtrak, the rail industry in general, and the role
ofgovernment agencies, who work collectively to ensure that the passengers
andrailroads of America remain safe and secure.
Railroad transportation as a mode of travel has been
afixture in this country for centuries. Rail has many advantages over air
andhighway travel, including:
lowercosts, reduced pollution and dependence on foreign oil, and overall
safety.
In 1970, to promote and consolidate passenger travelthroughout the United States, Congress created AMTRAK, known also as theNational Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRPC).
Today, Amtrak operates approximately 220
intercitytrains over 24,000 miles of track, directly serving AmericaÕs communities
in 45states. Amtrak also provides contractual commuter rail service, like here
inSan Jose.
Amtrak has established corporate values and goals
toensure the quality of the transportation service it is providing. These
valuesand goals relate to customers, employees, excellence, and integrity.
Ourcustomers come first, and our employees strive to deliver a service
thatexceeds customer expectations. This responsibility includes providing for
thesafety and security of our passengers. This is a threshold issue for
thecorporation. In fact, nothing is considered more important than our
commitmentto the safety and security of our passengers.
Statistically, according to the Federal
RailroadAdministration, there were five passenger deaths attributed to passengerservice
in 1994. In 1995, there were no reported passenger fatalities.Unfortunately,
the number of passenger fatalities thus far in 1996 has alreadysurpassed the
combined total number recorded for the previous two years, due tothe recent
accident involving an Amtrak train and a Maryland Rail Commuter(MARC) train.
The MARC accident occurred during the late afternoon hours onFriday, February
16, 1996. Eleven MARC commuter passengers lost their liveswhen the train
collided with the Chicago-bound Amtrak Capitol Limited, as itwas switching
tracks in the vicinity of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Non-fatal injuries to passengers are also a
primaryconcern of Amtrak and other rail transit and commuter agencies.
Statistics showthat most of the injuries sustained by passengers involved in
train accidentconsist of minor bruises and sprains. Less common injuries
include lacerations,fractures, and burns.
To correctly analyze the prevention of harm topassengers, it is appropriate to distinguish AmtrakÕs Òduty of careÓÐto ensurethe safety of its passengers, from AmtrakÕs Òduty of careÓÐto ensure thesecurity of its passengers. Safety involves the prevention of accidental harmcaused by unforeseen or foreseeable hazardous conditions, or inherentlydangerous activities. Security, on the other hand, involves the prevention ofintentional acts of harm involving criminal or illegal conduct. Security seeksto recognize and deter those persons in society who would intentionally hurtpeople or destroy property.
Nonetheless, although the two areas are distinct, thereis a substantial overlap between the two responsibilities. Usually, police andsecurity forces are the first responders to accidents, often counted upon toreduce the consequences of unintentional harm. Likewise, passenger safetyincludes the recognition of suspicious activities and the deterrence ofperpetrators from committing crimes. In face, in many states, onboard trainconductors have limited authority to take police action by statue.
Distinguishing safety from security is importantbecause
of the ramifications associated with prevention. For example, as willbe related
shortly, an accidental derailment in Hyder, Arizona, would not haveoccurred,
because the railroadÕs signal system would have alerted the engineer,in
advance, that the track was unsafe. In contrast, by intentionally wiring ashunt
to the rail, the perpetrator(s) duplicated a Òsafe rail condition,Ócausing the
locomotive engineer to proceed as if nothing was wrong.
Prevention of intentional acts, the security dilemma,discloses that a significant key to minimization is the security consciousnessof the men and women who work in the rail industry. Security, along withsafety, must be everyoneÕs responsibility, and rail workers who are out andabout working on the rails must examine rail conditions for acts of sabotage orvandalism. Rail workers must be trained to critically assess the differencebetween normal wear and tear, such as angle bar bolts backing off because ofvibration, and angle bar bolts intentionally loosened to cause a derailment. Inall cases where observation suggests suspicious activity, railroad police mustbe notified to conduct an investigation.
Along with rail workers and rail police, the nationÕsfederal transportation agencies are also dedicated to the prevention of harm tothe traveling public. The mission and goals of the Department ofTransportation, Federal Transit Administration, Federal RailroadAdministration, and the National Transportation Safety Board all includestatements, such as: to ensure the safety of all forms of transportation; tomaximize security and safety of transit systems for service users; to determinethe probable cause of transportation accidents; and to formulate safetyrecommendations to improve transportation safety. More specific comments aboutfederal activities in this regard will be made later in the body of the report.
When Congress created Amtrak, it recognized the
needfor a dedicated police force to protect the passengers and assets of
therailroad. Statutory authority for the Amtrak Police Department resulted
underSection 104.305.45, United States Code 545J. Under this authority,
Amtrakexpends in excess of 24.5 million dollars a year to ensure the security
of itspassengers. Approximately 18 million dollars of this money is allocated
toAmtrakÕs uniformed police division and 2 million dollars to
criminalinvestigations. The corporate budget also supports the Office of
AmtrakÕsInspector General.
AmtrakÕs 346 police officers are assigned to
28reporting locations throughout the United States. The majority, over 82%,
areassigned to locations in the Boston, MA to Washington, DC area. This
territory,known as the Northeast Corridor, consists of 621 miles of railroad
which Amtrakowns and operates.
Outside the corridor, on the remaining 23,000 plus milesof its routes, Amtrak depends on AmericaÕs independently owned freightrailroads to maintain the tracks and provide for national passenger service.This is accomplished through contractual operating agreements between Amtrakand freight lines which must provide upgraded rail conditions to facilitateAmtrakÕs higher speeds. Amtrak also contracts with freight carriers forsecurity through operating agreements. For example, in the State of Arizona,Amtrak maintains an operating agreement with the Southern Pacific Railway tooperate over its railroad. A total of eight Southern Pacific Railway policeofficers assigned throughout the State of Arizona provide police service asrequired.
As information, there are approximately 2,000
railroadspecial agents and police officers throughout the United States. Also,
the24,000 passenger miles of track mentioned represent about 21% of the
total110,425 of railroad track traveled by freight traffic. What this makes
clear isthat there is a tremendous dependence on federal, state, county,
municipal, orother law enforcement agencies to protect this countryÕs rail
infrastructure.
Now that the background information has been provided, Iwill discuss the crime: On Monday, October 9, 1995, at 2:13 AM (Mountain Time),Amtrak Train #1, The Sunset Limited derailed approximately 59 miles southwestof Phoenix, Arizona on the Southern PacificÕs Gila Sub Division, Phoenix Line.
The passenger train was the first to pass thislocation
since a Southern Pacific freight train traveled through 18 hourspreviously.
The Sunset Limited, en route from New Orleans to
LosAngeles, was traveling at approximately 50 miles per hour when two engines
andeight cars derailed. Two sleeping cars and the diner car fell 30 feet from
atrestle into a dry river bed.
The Sunset Limited carried 248 passengers and 20Amtrak
crew members. As a result of the derailment, 65 were injured and oneAmtrak on
board service employee, Mitchell Bates, age 58, was killed. Propertydamage to
the Amtrak cars and engines was estimated as exceeding $2,979,000.
The subsequent investigation into the crime
determinedthat the train was intentionally derailed. Notes found at the scene
identifieda previously unknown anti-U.S. government terrorist group, the ÒSons
ofGestapo,Ó as responsible for this act. References to both ÒRuby RidgeÓ
andÒWacoÓ were contained in the notes.
The perpetrators of the derailment committed the
crimeby removing a total of 29 spikes from the rails. Nuts and bolts were
alsoremoved from the rail joints which hold the sections of rails together, and
therail joints themselves were removed from the rails. A wire was spliced to
thebond wire of the signal system so that the signal, observed by the
engineer,would display a ÒgreenÓ signal to proceed at maximum authorized speed.
Afterthe wire had been spliced, the loosened 39 foot section of rail was
movedinward, causing the rail to be Òout of gauge.Ó The rail was then spiked in its precarious position so
thatit could not go back Òin gauge.Ó The placement of the Òout of gaugeÓ rail,
atop a 30 foot bridge, causeda number of the train cars to tumble over sideways
into the dry wash. Both leadlocomotives and the first car in the consist were
propelled forward, runningaground, but not tipping over.
Immediately following the derailment, police and rescueworkers were dispatched to the scene. The derailment site was in the remotestof desert-like locations, approximately 18 miles from the nearest paved road. TheMaricopa County SheriffÕs Department was the first law enforcement agency onthe scene. In all, over 50 deputies and volunteers assisted. Thirty-fiveambulances responded from Maricopa County and numerous communities. Helicoptersfrom Maricopa County, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the NationalGuard, and Air Evac transported the injured.
A total of sixteen railroad police officers,consisting
of eight members of the Southern Pacific Railway and eightDetectives from the
Amtrak Police Department, responded. And, in addition, over150 agents from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were brought in asthe lead agency to
conduct the investigation.
Early on, the derailment site was determined to be acrime scene. The site was sealed, with Southern Pacific Railway Policeestablishing a security ring in the immediate area, and the Maricopa SheriffÕsDepartment establishing a nine mile perimeter. Everyone located within theperimeter was interviewed by the FBI or local authorities. By 9:30 AM, FBIevidence collection teams began searching the area and collecting evidence,which lasted throughout the following day.
In addition to the law enforcement response,
theFederal Railroad Administration (FRA) sent inspectors to the area, and
theNational Transportation Safety Board sent in a team, as per federal
guidelines,to examine the derailment site for cause and to ensure that the
railroad wasoperating within federal regulations.
Both the Amtrak Police Department (APD) and the
FBIestablished 1-800 numbers for anyone wanting to call with information
regardingthe derailment. Also, a reward fund of $100,000 was established for
anyinformation leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator(s).
Thisreward will be offered again during the airing of an upcoming
ÒUnsolvedMysteriesÓ episode regarding the derailment.
The derailment remains under active investigation, with acommand center operating in the FBI Office in Phoenix, Arizona. The commandcenter is manned by agents of the FBI, together with a member from the AmtrakPolice Department, the Southern Pacific Railway Police Department, and theMaricopa County SheriffÕs Department.
At this time, it is appropriate to address the variousstate and federal statutes that apply to the derailment incident:
Title 18 United States Code, Section 1992, knowninformally
as the Train Wreck Statute states in pertinent part that:
Whoeverwillfully derails, disables, or wrecks any trainÉoperated, or employed ininterstateÉcommerce by any railroad; or (who) makesÉany tunnel, bridge,viaduct, trestle, track, signal, or any other way, structure,propertyÉunworkable or hazardousÉwith the intent to derail, disable, or wreck atrainÉshall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than twentyyears, or both. Whoever is convicted of any such crime, which has resulted inthe death of any person, shall be subject also to the death penalty or toimprisonment for lifeÉ
Federal law also applies to the destruction ofproperty
moving in interstate commerce. Title 18 United States Code, Section1281, states
that:
Ò(a) It shall be unlawful for any person willfully
todestroy or injure any property moving in interstate or foreign commerce in
thepossession of a common or contract carrier by railroad, motor vehicle,
oraircraft, or willfully to attempt to destroy or injure any such property.Ó
The penalty for violation of this statute is a fine notmore than $5,000 or imprisonment of more than ten years, or both.
Perpetrator(s) of the derailment are also subject
toprosecution under Arizona State law. The crimes include first degree
murder,aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, as well as criminal damage
toproperty.
If, in fact, this crime when solved is determined tobe
an act of terrorism, the federal conspiracy code would apply. Title 1 8United
States Code, 371, states that:
ÒIf two or more persons conspireeither to commit any offense against the United StatesÉor any agency thereof inany manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act toeffect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title orimprisoned not more than five years, or both.Ó
Additional legislation was introduced on February 1,1996, by Representative Susan Molinari (R-NY), in part, because of the Hyder,Arizona, derailment. H.R. 2949, titled the ÒRailroad and Transit SabotagePrevention Act of 1995,Ó is designed to strengthen federal law with respect tothe prohibitions against and penalties for acts which sabotage or otherwisethreaten the safety of rail transportation and mass transit.
The proposed legislation, submitted jointly to
theHouse Committees on Transportation & Infrastructure and Judiciary,
wouldmake the intentional interference with a rail signal system a federal
violationpunishable by fine, imprisonment or both, for up to 20 years. The Bill
wouldalso permit judges to sentence to death individuals who will fully
causehazardous materials to be released from trains, if the emitted hazmat
killssomeone.
I have taken the liberty of providing copies of theproposed legislation, and strongly encourage your support for its passagethrough your respective Congressional representatives.
To restate the issue, the question presented iswhether
the Arizona derailment could have been predetermined. To answer thisquestion
requires, in part, a brief discussion of the current state of signaltechnology
and other preventive systems in use.
Today, the movement of most trains is governed
bysignal systems, among which is the Automatic Block Signal System (ABS). ABS
isa system in which the trainÕs use of each block, or section of railroad,
isgoverned by an automatic block signal, cab signal, or both. An automatic
blocksignal is electronically activated either by track circuit, or in
conjunctionwith interlocking or controlled point circuits. This block signal
automaticallyindicates to the train engineer the track condition and block
occupancy of thatsection of railroad. A cab signal is a signal system located
in the operatingcab of the locomotive which also indicates track occupancy or
condition. Cabsignals are used in conjunction with interlocking signals and
with blocksignals.
The Arizona derailment occurred along a single
maintrack territory, equipped with an Automatic Block Signal (ABS) system,
arrangedfor movements in both directions. Additionally, the movement of trains
wasgoverned by a train dispatcher through Direct Traffic Control (DTC), which
wassupplemented by the signal indications of the ABS system. This was not
CABsignal territory on the Phoenix Line.
If a train is occupying a section of track within ablock,
or a section of rail within that block becomes separated or obstructed,a
wayside signal will display a red stop indication. The trainÕs engineer
isrequired to bring the train to a stop and notify the dispatcher for
furtherinstructions.
On October 12, 1995, shunt tests were conducted forthe
signals at the Arizona derailment site. With the rails separated at
thislocation, the tests showed that the signal aspects indicated that the
signalswere functioning correctly.
In other areas of the country, Centralized
TrafficControl (or CTC), is the predominant system in use. For example, on
AmtrakÕsNortheast Corridor, the movement of trains between Washington, DC and
Trenton,NJ and between New Haven, CT and Boston, MA is governed by a system
ofCentralized Traffic and Electrification Control (or CTEC).
The underlying functions of todayÕs signal
systemconsists of the use of a low voltage electric current which, when
compromisedor broken, transmits a warning that there is a problem with the
track ahead.
Signal technology and all other safety related
aspectsof railroad operations are governed by federal regulations and
railroadoperating rules. These rules cover such elements as speed limits,
movement oftrains, and the inspection of equipment. In developing, revising,
and enforcingthese rules, federal regulators and the railroads constantly
examine, analyze,and test their application against actual conditions. In fact,
railroadoperations are among the most heavily regulated and inspected
activities in theUnited States.
Among other requirements, all railroads are requiredto
perform periodic track inspections. All tracks must be inspected a minimumof
twice, within a seven day period, with at least one day between inspections.
With regard to the Arizona derailment, inspectionswere
conducted in accordance with regulation by the Southern Pacific trackinspectors
who utilize track geometry measuring cars to identify trackstructure defects.
These cars mechanically inspect trackage for exceptions inalignment, in
profile, in gauge, in cross level, and in warp.
Along with signal control and track
inspection,railroads depend on Òtrip reportsÓ which a locomotive engineer
completes andsubmits to identify potentially hazardous conditions.
What should be readily apparent from this review,
isthat with the exception of the signal system, there is no other real
timemethod of detecting a hazardous rail condition. This is not to say
thatimprovements to the current systems in use today are not being considered.
TheDepartment of Transportation has recently conducted research in
advancedsignals processing technology. The work consists of an adaptation
ofintelligence community technology to improve both rail safety and
security.Conceptually, the technology will identify not only intentional railseparations,
but normal wear and tear in rail as well. The Federal RailroadAdministration
anticipates continuing research into the technology over thenext four months at
facilities in Pueblo, Colorado.
Also, to improve the locational ability of railcarriers,
Global Positioning System (GPS) is being evaluated. GPS is atechnology
pioneered by the United States Army, currently in use in someforeign countries
and, in this country, by some trucking companies. GPS tracksships, trucks,
trains, and other modes of transportation by satellite to withinapproximately
ten feet of their actual position. The Federal RailroadAdministration is
currently conducting tests of this system between Portlandand Seattle.
In summary, what is important to recognize is
thatcurrently technology is designed for the prevention of accidental harm and
notas security against intentional acts. As is quickly observable in the
Arizonaderailment, the safety systems of railroads can be thwarted by those
intent oncausing harm. This is the nature of the safety versus security
dilemmamentioned previously.
At this point, what remains is to evaluate thecapacity
of police or security forces to have predicted the intentionalderailment. This
evaluation should start with a short history of intentionalacts of derailment:
Fifty-seven years ago, in 1939, the worst case ofrailroad vandalism in history took place when the Southern Pacific RailroadÕsstreamliner, The City of San Francisco, was derailed near Harney, Nevada. Inremarkable similarity to the Arizona derailment, spikes had been removed fromthe tracks and the wiring that would have warned the engineer that somethingwas wrong was bypassed. As the train rounded a curve, it jumped the tracks andplunged downward, killing 24 people and injuring more than 110 others.Newspapers demanded a nationwide investigation in search of the saboteurs, anddespite an offer of $10,000 reward, no one was ever arrested.
On August 12, 1992, two U.S. Coast
Guardsmenintentionally derailed the Amtrak Colonial in Newport News, Virginia.
In thatderailment, a switch padlock was cut and the alignment of the tracks
waschanged. The Colonial, traveling at 79 miles per hour entered a siding, and
theforce of the sudden change in direction threw the train from the
tracks.Fortunately, no one was killed. Ensuing investigation led to the arrest
of thecriminals, both of whom pled guilty to violating the Federal Train
WreckStatute. They received sentences of 17-1/2 years and 16-1/2 years in
federalprison.
In a third incident, occurring in the last two
months,sabotage was suspected in the wreck of a runaway Burlington Northern
Santa Fefreight train. On February 1, 1996, in St. Paul, Minnesota, the train
haulinglumber, grain, and other cargo descended a hill into a Canadian
PacificRailroad Yard. Traveling at 50 miles per hour, the train derailed in the
yardafter striking several parked locomotives. The crash resulted in the
derailmentof 44 cars and 6 locomotives. A one-story office building was also
destroyed.Fortunately, again no one was killed. In this particular incident,
the brakesdid not have sufficient air pressure to stop the train, and the
investigationis focusing on the brakes and whether they were intentionally
disabled.
In retrospect, how society prevents intentional acts is amixture of policy, criminal justice, and morality. We seek to deter people fromcriminal conduct through law and social control. Police and the courts attemptto identify and then punish those who are motivated to go outside the law.
Police in particular, through proper training, gatheringof intelligence, and deployment of sophisticated equipment and techniques workto prevent crime as well as capture the criminal. And yet, as shown by theexamples of the wrecks of the City of San Francisco, the Colonial, and theSunset Limited, the police are not always successful.
I would like to stop here in the analysis of this issue;however, Hyder, Arizona, brings a new element into the crime prevention aspectas it relates to surface transportation, and that element is terrorism. TheHyder derailment represents the first known purported attack against surface transportationon U.S. soil that allegedly was motivated by terrorism.
In truth, whether the Sunset Limited was
derailedintentionally by the ÒSons of GestapoÓ in retaliation for government
action atÒRuby RidgeÓ and ÒWacoÓ is in dispute. Notes at the derailment scene
indicatedthis; however, it is also possible that these notes were left by
theperpetrators to increase difficulty for law enforcement in identifying the
truemotive.
Nonetheless, as evidence by the bombing of the
WorldTrade Center in New York on February 26, 1993, and the federal building
inOklahoma City on April 19, 1995, the United States is no longer immune
toterroristic acts of violence against its citizens.
Terrorism is defined as, Òthe unlawful use of force
orviolence committed by a group, or two or more individuals, against persons
orproperty to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or
anysegment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.Ó
At a recent conference, February 26-28, 1996, in Atlanta,Georgia, the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal TransitAdministration (FTA), and the Volpe National Transportation Systems Centersponsored a seminar to specifically address terrorism and its impact on surfacetransportation in the United States. Secretary Fredrico Pe–a of DOT discussedrecent intelligence estimates, which indicated that in todayÕs globalenvironment, there is a four times greater potential of being a victim ofterrorism on surface transportation.
Since 1991, twenty percent of all terrorist attacks,worldwide, have involved transportation. In 1995 alone, there were 170 violentattacks. Just as alarming, from the rail perspective, terrorism is shifting itstargeting from airlines and airports, towards trains, buses, and subways. Railtransportation, particularly Amtrak, because of its nationwide venue,represents a highly visible symbol of government to terrorists. Probably mostAmerican citizens have seen a red, white, and blue Amtrak train cross thehorizon. In addition, the rail transportationÕs sheer quantity of exposurepoints, which include stations, train cars, bridges, signals, tunnels, andtrack make it a decidedly vulnerable target. And, finally, rail transportationis an attractive target for terrorism because of the concentrations of largenumbers of people, and the randomness of attacking innocent people, whichheightens fear levels.
In the summer of 1995, a national intelligenceestimate
singled out transportation nodes and hubs and recommended precautionbe taken to
reduce the potential threat. Since August 1995, the DOT, inconjunction with the
FRA and FTA, has issued a total of threetransportation-related terrorism advisories
to the rail industry.
In regard to this nationÕs policy concerning
terrorism,the President of the United States on June 21, 1995, issued
PresidentialDecision Directive 39 (PDD-39), which states: ÒAmericaÉ(will) use
allappropriate means to deter, defeat, and respond to all terrorist attacks on
ourterritory and resources, both people and facilities, wherever they
occur.Ó PDD-39 directs that
special efforts beconducted to ensure American security against terrorist acts
in two areas thatimpact on the rail industry: first, the review of government
facilities andcritical national infrastructure; and, second, reduction of
vulnerabilitiesaffecting U.S. airports, aircraft passengers and shipping, and
the provision ofappropriate security measures for other modes of
transportation. United StatesÕpolicy on terrorism is: 1) to employ efforts to
deter, apprehend, and prosecuteterrorists; 2) to work closely with other
governments to carry outcounter-terrorism policy and combat terrorist threats
against them; 3) toidentify sponsors of terrorists, isolate them, and ensure
they pay for theiractions; and 4) to make no concessions to terrorists.
To better frame todayÕs current potential forterrorism
directed at surface transportations requires a brief examination ofthe types of
incidents occurring throughout the world. In this regard, it isappropriate to
note the lesson of the Sunset Limited derailment, namely thatthe United States
in concededly a part of, and not an observer to, terrorismdirected at surface
transportation.
Great Britain: On February 18, 1996, a bomb destroyeda
double-decker bus in London near Trafalgar Square. The explosion blew off
thefront of the bus and tore the top off, spraying the area with shards of
metaland glass. Eight passengers on the bus were seriously injured. LondonÕs
vastpublic transportation system, just like that of the United States,
isparticularly vulnerable to attack because of the hundreds of thousands
ofpassengers moving on and off its buses, subways, and rail lines almost aroundthe
clock.
France: On July 25, 1995, at 5:30 PM (rush hour),
aviolent explosion occurred at the front of the sixth car of Train PSIT 30 as
itwas nearing its normal stopping position in the Saint-Michel Notre Dame
Stationin Paris. The explosion resulted in a fireball with a measured
temperature ofover 3,000¡Cat its epicenter. Fortunately, the fireproof materials utilized in the
carÕsconstruction resisted the fireball and the vehicle did not catch
fire.Nonetheless, the number of victims was high: 7 dead and 80 injured, 14 of
whomwere serious.
Japan: On March 20, 1995, at 8:00 AM (rush hour),
theKasumigaseki Subway Station in the heart of Tokyo was the prime target for
therelease of the deadly chemical nerve gas, Sarin. Commuters at the station,
aswell as at sixteen other stations all over central Tokyo on three subway
lineswere struck down by severe fits of coughing, choking and vomiting.
Subwaycollapsed, one after another, as they tried to remove punctured
nylonpolyethylene bags wrapped in newspaper, from which the deadly poison gas
wascoming. In all, twelve people died and 5,500 were injured as terror struck
atthe heart of the Japanese nation. Japan, like the United States, had long
beenconsidered a safe nation, but this image was shattered by the terrorist attackon
the Tokyo Subway Station.
Israel: Between February 25 and March 4, 1996,
Israelsuffered from its worst week of terrorism in history. A total of four
bombingsoccurred in nine days, resulting in the death of 61 people with scores
ofothers injured. Two of the bombings targeted buses, representing the
seventhand eighth attack directed at surface transportation in Israel since
April1994. All but one of the explosions involved a suicide bomb.
Returning to AmericaÕs rail transportation system,
in1994, the railroad police section of the Association of American
Railroads(AAR) compiled statistics that disclosed that a total of 12,280
incidents ofvandalism had occurred nationwide. The annual cost attributed to
these acts wasapproximately 5.2 million dollars. The AAR statistics, however,
are underinclusive,accounting for approximately 61% of total U.S. rail miles.
Unfortunately, manyof the nationÕs smaller railroads do not capture or
centrally report crimeinformation. Also, the FBI, through the National Crime Information
Center(NCIC), does not separate crime against railroads in its current
classificationsystem.
Signal vandalism accounted for approximately 3,000
ofthe offenses, while 154 were reported in the category Òvandalism resulting
inderailment.Ó It is important
tomention that none of the vandalism derailment involved passenger
trains.However, as addressed by Representative Molinari in H.R. 2949, there is,
andshould be, a tremendous concern about the potential for the willful,
deliberatederailment of a freight train carrying hazardous materials.
Law enforcementÕs response to terrorism directed
atsurface transportation is obviously of critical importance to the nation.
Astated by the Secretary of Transportation at the February 1996 Conference
inAtlanta, federal, state, and local authorities in coordination with
railcarriers must act to reduce the potential for violence to the
transportationindustryÕs passengers, employees, and infrastructure. To assist,
the DOT hascreated the Office of Intelligence & Security (OIS) which
reports directlyto the Office of the Secretary. OIS collects, analyzes, and
disseminatesinformation about potential threats to the transportation industry,
boththrough advisories, and through circulars and information products.
Currently,an OIS/AAR project is underway in which secured government
communications willbe installed in the offices of the railroad police
authorities to facilitatethe real time dissemination of threat information from
the federal agencies.OIS maintains a 24 hour telephone number (1-800-424-8802).
As mentioned, the DOTÕsresponse is supported by the activities of a host of other federal agenciesthrough the federal response plan. These include: the Department of Defense(DOD); the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); the Public HealthService (PHS); the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); and the Department ofJustice (DOJ), principally through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). As mentionedpreviously, the response to the Hyder, Arizona, derailment includedmobilization of a number of these federal agencies.
State and local law enforcement agencies also have amajor role in deterring terrorism, particularly acts of domestic terrorism suchas the bombing in Oklahoma City, which allegedly involved fringe elements ofmilitia groups, or the derailment of the Sunset Limited purportedly by theÒSons of GestapoÓ in retaliation for ÒWacoÓ and ÒRuby Ridge.Ó
Most important for us to recognize is that at the centerof prevention is awareness. While not all incidents can be prevented, steps canbe taken to harden rail systems. Foremost, this includes education and trainingto prepare rail employees to be cognizant of potential threats and to regularlymonitor vital and vulnerable targets for tampering or suspicious devices. Sucha program requires coordination between police and employees, and must belinked to an effective intelligence gathering component that analyzes threatsand supports informed decision making. Detailed contingency planning must beperformed, along with field exercises, to evaluate the effectiveness of theresponse. And finally the use of standardized formats, such as the IncidentCommand System (ICS) or CaliforniaÕs Standardized Emergency Management System(SEMS), is mandatory. The strength of such systems is in their ability toassist in the capture and organization of situational information.
As mentioned, there are over 110,000 miles of railroadtracks in the United States, traveled by both passengers and freight traffic.Securing such a vast jurisdiction is a daunting responsibility, primarilyperformed by the men and women of the various railroad police agencies of theUnited States. These officers are assisted in a major way by the 270,000 employeesof AmericaÕs railroads and the thousands of employees of the nationÕsinner-city transit systems who take their duty to maintain the safety of thisnationÕs passengers very seriously.
Could Hyder have been predicted? Probably not anymore than any
otherrandom act of intentional violence committed by an individual or
individualswho act with indifference towards the sanctity of human life and
well being.However, we in the transportation industry and in the community at
large cantake steps to reduce the likelihood of a recurrence.
One example of such cooperation, appropriate to highlightbecause it occurred in Arizona, happened on February 9, 1996. In Goodyear,Arizona, seven miles west of Phoenix, the Goodyear Police Department arrestedan individual adjacent to the railroad for a traffic violation. A routinesearch of the vehicle resulted in the discovery of what appeared to beexplosives. Goodyear Police contacted the Southern Pacific Railway Police whodispatched track patrols from two directions, checking approximately 100 milesof track. Amtrak Train #1, the Sunset Limited, was delayed about one and a halfhours to facilitate the track inspection. As it turned out, the tracks wereclear, and the explosives were found to be inert. However, this does notdetract from the significance of the work performed by those involved. Securityconsciousness demands that such incidents be taken quite seriously.
I would like to thank the distinguished members of
theInternational Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies,
mycolleagues in the railroad industry, and my fellow law enforcement
officers,both in this nation and abroad, for their recognition of the tragedy
of Hyder,Arizona, and their commitment to maintaining our rail infrastructure
as thiscountryÕs safest mode of public transportation.
And as a postscript, I would like to read a
shortexcerpt from the Washington Timesnewspaper, entitled ÒRailroad
Blues,Ó The editorial was written two days afterthe Arizona derailment.
ÒAn Amtrak Police officerpulled up alongside the heavily traveled railroad tracks that run parallel toNew York Avenue NE just after 8:30 a.m. yesterday. He climbed out of his markedcruiserÐÔAmtrak PoliceÐProtecting a Nation In TransitÕÐadjusted his holster andcarefully stepped over three sets of worn rails.
The policeman walked north, on a dirty bed ofbroken
glass reflecting fresh graffiti, in the direction of the Anacostia Riverand a
trestle that supports speeding Amtrak trainsÐ several dozen a day enroute from
Washington, New York and points beyond, all the way to the sands ofArizona. At
every switch box the officer would stop to study the tracks, andthen the signal
lights overhead. Satisfied both were in sync, he moved on,until he disappeared
out of sight.
For this railroad cop, and hundreds like himpatrolling
the thousands of miles of rails that crisscross the country in thewake of
MondayÕs train derailment in Arizona, it was his first day walking aterrifying
new beat.Ó
Thank You.
(furtherinformation
available in appendices)
Mr.Rob
Vitale
The next speaker is DenisJackson who is the Vice President for Technical Operations with AmericanMedical Response (AMR) West. He is responsible for a territory that includesOregon, Washington, California, and Hawaii. Mr. Jackson has extensiveexperience and broad expertise in Medical Incident Command and is responsiblefor communications dispatch and its association in response to mass casualtydisasters. A former fire fighter and paramedic, Denis is here to address theemergency response to terrorist attack.
At 9:02 on the morning of April 19, 1995, a
tremendousexplosion ripped through the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in
downtownOklahoma City. 168 people, including 19 children, were killed. The
count offatalities was originally 169, but that has been dropped down by one as
bodyparts were more closely identified.
Within 90 seconds of the explosion,
OklahomaÕsEmergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA), staffed with American
MedicalResponse paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians had 24 medical
personnelin 7 ambulances enroute to the site.
Within 3 minutes, EMSA/American Medical
Responseparamedics were on the scene and starting to triage and treat the
injured.
Within 6 minutes, AMR personnel had set up theincident
command structure that would allow the organized treatment andtransport of the
injured patients.
EMSA/AMR was responsible for the transport of
215patients, with 210 patients transported within the first hour.
EMSA/AMR had 127 of its 131 medical personnel
involvedin the disaster response.
Good Afternoon. My name is Denis Jackson. I am
VicePresident of Technical Operations for American Medical Response West.
AMR West provides the California Bay Area and CentralValley
with emergency and non-emergency paramedic ambulanceservices-contracting for
911 primary response. In California alone, we answerthe request for medical aid
over one thousand times a day.
We are part of the American Medical Response
Inc.family, the leading ambulance company, operating in 27 states and 24
Californiacounties. Nationally we serve a population base of more than 14
million.
Yes, our company is the largest of its kind in
thenation, both in area services and annual call volume.
But our local AMR staff of 2,314 is part of the
fabricof the region we all live in.
We are your neighbors.
Our kids go to school with your kids.
We attend the same churches, synagogues and temples.
We go to the same stores and restaurants.
Our paramedics and other medical response team
membersare on the front lines of emergency health care in the Bay Area and
CentralValley every hour of every day.
Our crews have provided more advanced life support andparamedic careÐfrom helping kids who have fallen off their bikes to theOklahoma City bombingÐthan any other single organization in America.
We feel it is our responsibility to share theknowledge
and experience weÕve gained first hand, so emergency response can beimproved
and lives can be saved.
ThatÕs why we have recently recommended to Congressand
to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) a number of majoremergency
response reforms, including the creation of national training andperformance
standards for organizations that can potentially respond todisasters. The
paramedics involved in the rescue efforts on April 19 alsosuggested to Congress
ÒReadiness RatingsÓ for emergency rescue organizations,stating their better
communication structures should be created to acquaintlocal organizations with
federal services available during an emergency.
We feel that, given the awful increase in man-made
andnatural catastrophes across America in recent years, it is critical that
ournation enhance its ability to respond to disasters by developing andencouraging
performance standards for responding agencies.
We all hope that a tragedy like Oklahoma City is
neverrepeated, but incidents such as the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building
andthe World Trade Center and the Arizona Amtrak derailment demonstrate
thatAmerica is no longer safe from large-scale terrorist activities.
It seems major earthquakes have become a
yearlyoccurrence in California.
Floods, fires and airplane crashes are
unfortunatefacts of American life.
And, of course, train derailments, air crashes, such asSioux City, Iowa, and the Oklahoma City bombing demonstrate that no part of theUnited States, no matter how remote, is immune from large-scale disaster.
Our paramedics and emergency medical technicians
havebeen among those who have seen those tragedies up-close and personally.
Frequently, we are among the first rescue workers
onscene.
In major incidents, we send crews from around
thecountry to assist.
We dispatched assistance from California and
Connecticutto Oklahoma City after the bombing.
Most rescue workers in such disasters are dedicated,well-trained and committed to their duties while facing incredible pressures.
Long hours, physical peril and emotional stress take
aheavy toll on all rescue personnel.
Yet there always continues to be room for improvement.
Congressman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma stated,
ÒThemedical emergency professionals of EMSA/[AMR] were on the scene of the
Murrahbombing literally seconds after the blast, treating innocent victims of
anunthinkable crime. IÕm certain their front line experience in responding to
adisaster of this magnitude will provide a valuable case study in the event of
afuture catastrophe, be it a natural disaster or, God forbid, another terrorist
action.Ó
Our experience has taught us in very personal
termsthat there are a number of areas in which reforms could lead to
significantimprovements.
This summer, as I mentioned, an American
MedicalResponse team was invited to brief Congress, making six recommendations
toCongress and FEMA for reform of our emergency response systemsÐhoping
topromote the feasibility of federal legislation or regulations.
These recommendations were part of the first formalevaluation and report stemming from the Oklahoma City tragedy. Theserecommendations have also been presented to the American Ambulance Associationand to the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
Letme
tell you about those six proposals:
1. All on-scene commandstructure personnelÐthe operations managers, chiefs, supervisorsÐshould meetminimum requirements through attending disaster management courses, such asincident command and local disaster planning and education.
We were fortunate that theEmergency Medical Services Agency/American Medical Response teamÐour OklahomaorganizationÐhad recently participated with other Oklahoma agencies in disastertraining.
We are convinced that this specialized training
savedlives, of both those injured in the initial blast, and of the responding
publicsafety personnel.
2. Each agency shouldbe required to put in a minimum number of training hours per employeeconcentrating on disaster management. Each agency and the agencyÕspersonnelÐall of themÐshould participate in a minimum number of exercises withother disaster response organizations.
In Oklahoma City, EMSA/AMRemployees receive approximately 10 hours per year of disaster managementtraining and participate in two practice exercises and one field drill a yearwith other agencies.
As a result, the first crews on scene in Oklahoma
Cityknew how to set up an incident command structure quickly. Other
respondingpersonnel knew how their job and responsibilities fit into the
structure,another life-saving advantage.
When I mention all of the personnel, I am makingreference to every person within the organization, from the persons who answerthe business telephone, the supply clerks, the mechanics and facilitiesmanagers, to the actual responses. All members of the team play a vital role insupport of the patient and those in need.
While we are sometimes our own best critics, theutilization of ÒevaluatorsÓ from outside your organization, outside yourspecialty (but within public safety) can provide a fresh look, a newperspective, an unbiased opinion. Remember the purpose of these exercises ordrills is not to look good, but rather to learn, to identify those areas ofweakness, to see where we can improve.
3. Command team membersshould be fully educated on available state and federal disaster responseservices and how to request those services.
Again, as a result of theemergency response course shortly before the incident, EMSA/AMR and otherOklahoma disaster management agencies were able to quickly enlist theassistance of state and federal support agencies such as FEMA, the NationalGuard and state and local emergency management agencies.
4. Emergency responseorganizations should be rated on their state of readiness measured by nationalstandards for equipment availability and amount of disaster planning andtraining.
Although EMSA/AMR was preparedwith plenty of disaster response medical supplies, there is no nationalstandard regarding the types and quantities of supplies needed for largecasualty incidents. Few agencies have accurate Òup to dateÓ information readilyon hand. If you do, my congratulations to you and your organizationÐyou areahead of the curve.
In theory, the call for potential assistance
shouldoccur before you hear of the event on the news.
5. A national CriticalIncident Stress Debriefing (CISD) program should be developed to offer servicesto rescue workers emotionally shaken by their work in saving lives andrecovering the dead. While CISD is a term used with local chapters, there is nonationwide coordination of resources during a disaster. Local CISD chaptersmust be supported and augmented with experienced team members from across thenation.
American Medical Responsepioneered a model of such a program, which we provided for rescue workers inOklahoma City.
The stress debriefing program was not fullyoperational
in Oklahoma, so we had to bring in personnel from other AMRoperations around
the country. This is an area that has been given littleattention in the past
but which is very important for helping crews cope withthe trauma of disaster
response.
Let us not just focus on those who responded to theincident, but to those who were (or were not) on duty, those who did notrespond because they were holding up the Òrest of the system.Ó Let us notforget all of the support personnel, those behind the scenes.
6. A common-frequencyradio communications system should be set up in each local community so thatemergency response organizations can coordinate their activities and shareinformation.
Communicationremains
one of the largest problems in any major disaster in our country.
As more rescue and supportorganizations arrived on scene in Oklahoma City, communications becamedifficult because various agencies were using different frequencies.
Valuable time was lost becauserunners had to be sent to different command posts to share information. Whilemany communities and states attempt to utilize a common frequency, nonationwide network is in place to accommodate this critical communication need.
All in all, the level ofcommitment and professionalism of disaster workers around this country isextremely high, but more can be done to ensure higher training standards,better resources and coordination of those resources.
National performance standardswill ensure that those workers are uniformly well-trained and prepared in ahigh-casualty disaster.
American Medical Response hasalso been a pioneer in forming service alliances with fire departmentsproviding paramedic and transport services for emergencies. Our paramedicsstaff the ambulances which respond to emergency calls. We believe it provides anational model for ambulance, out of hospital health-care and paramedicservices of the future.
In Santa Clara County, forexample, American Medical Response, in conjunction with the County and the Cityof San Jose, is helping to fund (to the tune of 1.2 million dollars) paramedictrained fire fighters in order to reduce the time it takes a paramedic to bebeside the patient by up to two minutes.
We have done similar partnershipsin Colorado and in Sacramento, with fire fighters and AMR ambulance crews nowworking side-by-side. In Sacramento, AMR will provide about 180 thousanddollars to the American River Fire District each year, which will train firedepartment paramedics at no cost to taxpayers.
At the bottom lineÐmore paramedics will be available in anemergency.
They get there faster.
And these public/private partnerships save taxpayersmoney.
Sounds almost too goodÉbut itÕs true.
And we wonÕt stop here. We hope to build more private/public partnerships such as this in the months and years to come.
This is American MedicalResponseÕs commitment to public safety, our commitment to responsiblepartnerships with government and our commitment to our friends and neighbors,the people of the Bay Area, California and the Nation.
It is 1830 hours (6:30 PM) on aFriday evening. Suddenly all of your telephone lines and radio networks aredarkÉ they donÕt work. Unbeknownst to you, Òbad guysÓ have cut all telephonelines (7,400 of them) with an ax at a central point, in an attempt to knock outburglar alarm systems for a micro chip processor plant. All communication withthe outside world is non-existent.
This is not a drill.
This actually happened.
Here is the evidence.
What would you do?
Thank you for your attention and interest today. IÕdbe
happy to answer any questions you might have.
Q.
Did I understandthat
youÕre advocating a single radio channel?
A. I am advocating
acoordination of radio frequencies. We are advocating for a select group in
theCalifornia to have the white channel for the fire and EMS side where an
agencycan go anywhere else and be able to communicate. In Oklahoma there
wereproblems when we brought different agencies from outside of the immediate
areand tried to allow them to talk to one another.
Q. Okay,so
you have a channel so you can communicate with each other? But the individual mission groups
areoperating on their own channels?
A. Someof
the mission groups canÕt communicate with other command structures.
Q. Okay.
A. WeÕretalking
across the nation, not in this locale specifically. In this area weÕredoing the
job well.
Q. Wasthere
a command post set up? IsnÕtthat
part of the reason for the ICSÐto have the command post where an
individualrepresentative on their net would be controlling this flow of
information?
A. Yes.
Rod Diridon,Executive
Director of IISTPS, moderated a panel discussion following thepresentations. He
suggested that the panel discussion is a productive part ofthe session and encouraged
all to avail themselves of the opportunity to askquestions. He began this
section of the symposium by thanking the speakers, whohad now become panelists.
Diridon expressed common sentiments that they weretruly outstanding and thanked
them not only for their participation, but alsofor the time they had
contributed to be a part of the proceedings.
Diridon opened the questions by requesting
thatparticipants stay with the topic of the symposium, the preparation to
thwartand the response to terrorism in the surface transportation system.
Q. IÕmDale
Tenbrock with the California Department of Transportation. The HighwayPatrol is
the lead agency for highway events such as terrorism, bombs, and soforth. As we
frequently receive bomb threats for bridges and structures andfreeway
operations, weÕre always struggling with how best to respond. Do weshut the
system down or not? Oftenwe donÕt
shut the systems down; we do a quick search, sometimes run traffic blocksand so
on. Our thoughts are that the threats are designed to get publicity, andif they
shut a system down, the terrorist us getting satisfaction. IÕd beinterested in
your comments on whether we should or should not shut the systemsdown and how
we might evaluate the threat and the significance of the threat?
Diridon:Why
donÕt we begin with Special Agent Webb and then move to others who wouldlike to
respond.
A. by Agent Webb: Just so you know, CHP dispatch sends us those calls, too. There is
awhole school of thought about bomb threat evaluations. And without giving a
lotof things away, we look at them; we look at the time factor. How close is
itgoing to be? And we look at
whatkind of detail is given in the text of the call. If somebody just calls
andsays thereÕs a bomb on the Benicia Bridge and hangs up, how are you going
toscale that? In years
past,particularly overseas, some groups have put in code words; thatÕs
beenimportant also.
I donÕt think there is any set answer. ItÕs really scenariodependent upon what they tell you. And you know some agencies will notevacuate. They will not close down. IÕm sure they do that at some risk, butitÕs like that old thing of the bomb threat at 2:30 in the afternoon at a highschool, on a Friday afternoon. You can kind of see through that one. You reallyhave to look at the text, at where itÕs coming from.
Funny you should mention that because somebody came
upto me at the break and asked about bridges and toll booths, and I said to
talkto CHP because they do it. California, by the way, is advanced in a lot
ofways, particularly in medical services and consequence management. A lot of
itcomes from the Incident Command System. Everybody is used to it, knows how
todeal with it, and is reading the same sheet of music. IÕm not sure other
statesare as fortunate or as lucky.
Diridon:Other
panelists like to comment?
A. by Mr. Savage: I, too, think every incident is looked at individually. In New York
wewould take a look at all the facts presented to us. ThereÕs usually some
leadtime, and what happens to us in New York is that the threat usually
occursaround the rush hour. If the threat is that a bomb will go off in an
hour, wewould attempt to transfer trains among our different lines. If we get
into asituation where we canÕt back a train out of that particular line,
weÕllcertainly bypass a station up to a certain point in time through the
scenario.In the example I gave you, where letÕs say we had an hour, within a
half hourwe would have had the station cleared out and we would have had enough
time todivert service to a number of other lines. If a train still remained on
theline with a half hour, we would certainly bypass that station.
A. by Chief
Frazier: I think also the preparation
for these things is veryimportant. There is a bomb threat check list, and IÕm
sure you all use thatwhen the call comes in. You get the information about the
nature of the call asspecifically as possible; try to keep that person on the
phone, those sorts ofthings. Amtrak experiences a number of bomb threats
throughout the systemduring any given year. What weÕve done is made sure that
we have instantrecording devices at all of our reservation centers where they
normally comein. That allows us to capture the call and then transmit it to the
policedepartment. ATF publishes a very good bomb guide dealing with these
issues.
Q. IÕm John Skinner with Amtrack in Los Angeles. Yourcritical incidents report for stress is very close to me as well. And I have aquestion for Mr. Jackson. When youÕre doing debriefings for response personnel,are you using a multi-tiered debriefing like professional debriefers along withpsychologists and so on?
A. by Mr. Jackson: We provide the spectrum depending on the incident.In the Oklahoma tragedy, all that was done. But we also use our CISD plan. ItÕsup to the lead person doing the CASD to call in the resources they deemappropriate. But that is part of the whole package and needs to be.
Q.
Whatpercentage of your people in the Oklahoma bombing required some level
ofcritical incidents debriefing?
A. by Mr. Jackson: 100% of them received it.
Q. I
canunderstand that.
Q.
DirkWassenaar, Professor of Marketing, San JosŽ State University. Question
forChief Frazier, please. How do you handle working with the many local
agenciesin the various jurisdictions that you do business in?
A. by Chief Frazier: I had not met the Sheriff of Santa Clara County priorto today, but the
first thing he said to me was that he had adopted our captainout here in San
Jose. And thatÕs how we work. We work very well with state andlocal officials.
We spend an inordinate amount of time communicating andhopefully getting
information out through the associations of law enforcementprofessionals, the
SheriffsÕ Association, the International Association ofChiefs of Police, etc.
We know each other on a face to face basis. ThatÕs veryimportant in these
situations. And beyond that I think IÕd simply say thatpeople understand
railroading. State and local officials understand a lot aboutit and over time
things tend to repeat in some areas so we have the benefits ofeducation from
that standpoint. As the Sheriff said here today, Captain TomMahr works for him.
I didnÕt know that, but thatÕs the way we go about doingit.
Q. My name is Guy Newgrin. ChiefFrazier, in your
presentation you mentioned signal technology. I noticed thatone of the
responsibilities that IISTPS has taken on is technology transfer,and you spoke
about the change in voltage when somebody alters the signalwires. Similar
technology has been used for many years in fire and burglaralarm systems, and I
commend you for that. Do you have a plan in place forreplacement or
modification of all those signals?
Something else crossed my mindwhen you said that. A few years ago I would have been hesitant to ask this, Iwould have thought it too bizarre, too impossible and impractical. But now theway technology is I guess IÕm not afraid to ask anything about what can bedone. Has anybody ever thought about or looked into actually wiringÐeither hardwire or some other technologyÐthe tracks themselves for tamper detection sothat if the spikes were removed or the rail realigned it would actually bedetectable?
A. by Chief
Frazier: I thinkthat IÕm probably not very good at answering that
question because my forte ison the law enforcement side versus the signal side.
I know the AmericanAssociation of Railroads and the FRA and the DOT spend
considerable time andeffort at examining rail conditions and ways to go about
making improvements torail systems. As I mentioned somewhat in my talk, there
is a current projectunderway out of the Office of Intelligence and Security of
DOT in which theyare taking a look at using intelligence community kinds of
technology andtransferring that to the rails of the United States. ThatÕs going
on, or willbe going on shortly, in Pueblo.
Our trains are traveling all over the United
States,and we depend on freight railroads; we also depend on dispatch services
interms of locating those trains. There is a global positioning system that
isbeing evaluated right now. ItÕs used by a trucking agency, and I know itÕs
inuse with buses in Israel. A recent presentation in Atlanta talked
extensivelyabout that in terms of locating exactly where a vehicle is at any
given time.ThatÕs about the extent of what I know with respect to signal
technology.
A. by Mr.
Savage: In NewYork we have a special engineering-type of train that
runs on all the track ofour system and does very specific, highly sensitive
engineering readings thatmeasure the width of the track. It detects spikes and
different ballasts thatstart to wear down; itÕs a highly technical engineering
machine.
A. by Agent
Webb: If I could justfollow up on what the Chief said, the
need for information exists. I never knewhow a railroad signal operated, but two
weeks after, ÒSplit-RailÓ (Code Namefor Arizona Derailment) occurred, both Time
and Newsweek magazines had close-ups of how the shunt was constructed.
The samething happened after Oklahoma City, instructions almost, ÒTo build your
ownbomb, use this percentage of ammonium nitrate.Ó ThatÕs what creates the demand to keep the information outof
the public eye, but the information is still out there. I would say thatweÕre
almost too generous with our information.
Q. Jim
Grayburn. You provided a beautifulsegue for my question about the information
thatÕs given out. I notice that theAmtrak derailment and the New York City
token booth incidents followed fiction.IÕm wondering if there is something that
goes on in these instances?
A. by Mr. Savage: My
ownpersonal opinion is that ÒThe Money TrainÓ did cause that token booth
firebombing. Some people wonÕt agree with me for a whole host of reasons, but I
sawthe movie the first week it came out. I went to one of the premiers.
Theincident youÕre probably referring toÐwhere the token booth agent was
killedÐinmy mind was a copy-cat. ItÕs difficult to tell how much we educate the
peoplewho do things like that by the information we give out.
Q. JimGrayburn.
Tom, as a follow-up, would you recommend anything be done in regardto the kinds
of movies that show that kind of violence?
A. by Mr. Savage: About two months ago one of the TV shows, ÒLaw
&Order,Ó had a segment about a fire bombing in the subway system. The
producerswanted part of it filmed directly on one of our station platforms. We
said no.In the end, city streets were used as a staging area; everything was
done afterthe fact. Their original intent was to actually do the scene right on
thestation platform. I was accused of being a censor, but we dug our heels in,
andwe took advantage of the fact that the request came shortly after ÒThe
MoneyTrainÓ came out.
A. by Chief Frazier: The issue here has beenaddressed in terms of the media
and law enforcement. ThatÕs what weÕve beentalking about. But we started with
publication material and mentioned theInternet. In Atlanta, an individual came
from CNN and was involved with thepolice in the presentation; she was a
panelist. Of course, there is always aconflict between police operations and
the press about whatÕs known and such. IcanÕt say that the Arizona derailment
was caused in any way by the provision ofany information through the media; I
donÕt have any indication of that.Factually, the 1939 crash of the City of San
Francisco was quite similar.
There are a lot of people in this country
whounderstand a number of things about railroads. Now, I donÕt know if they
reallyhad anything to do specifically with that particular derailment, but I
guess Ihedge in the same way about information dissemination. You certainly
donÕt wantto put out information that is going to facilitate the commission of
any kindof crime at all.
A. by Agent Webb: I might mention that weÕve spoken to the author ofthat
work. He wrote it as a historical railroad buff, and now everybody says
heplanted the seed. I would honestly say that heÕs heartsick over the
linkagecreated.
Q. Barry Colin, Institute for Security andIntelligence. One of the elements that makes terrorism effective is the terrorelement. I wonder if any of the people on the panel have recommendations forthose of us in the front lines as to educating the public so that theyunderstand that while there is a threat, we can go ahead and function every dayand use the rail, use buses, use land transportation without wondering andhaving great concern. How do we educate the public?
A. by Mr. Savage: Again, let me use
anexample. In New York weÕve become very aggressive about getting our
systemsback in place as fast as we possibly can. The 14th Street incidentthat
I referred to this morning involved a motorman, whom we believe was underthe
influence, and very nearly wiped out one section of the line. We had over1,000
people working 24 hours a day to get that particular branch of the subwaysystem
back in running order; we were out for only a few days. When we allowedthe news
media down into the tunnel area, we did it in a pool-type ofsituation; we
allowed one camera per person and only one photographer. We didthat for safety
reasons; we were unsure at the time about how much damage wasactually done. A
lot of people thought we would never be able to get serviceback as fast as we
did, but it was important to us to get it back fast.
And, we wanted the pressinvolved to get the message out that everything was safe. I think that is thekeyÐyou want to work with the press, let them know what the real situation isand give them plenty of valid and accurate information. You also probably wantto set some stretch goals for yourself about bringing the system back as fastas you possibly can. And then the public starts using the line again; once youget past that first days, itÕs business as usual.
We have the same type of problemin New York when a water main breaks. WeÕre finding that a lot of our watermains are 100 years old and when they go they cause a lot of disruption to oursubway system. It really takes a team effort. The Department of Public Works,the MayorÕs office, everybody focuses on getting that piece of theinfrastructure back on line. And we find that if you do that often enough theriding public, your customers basically, develop an attitude of, ÒWeÕll beokay, itÕll be fixed by Monday.Ó You hit a couple of home runs, so to speak, by bringing the lines backon quickly and safely, and it helps.
Q. Jerry
Maldonado with the Alameda CountySheriffÕs Department. The question is directed
to Mr. Savage. How effectivehave you found video recording equipment to be in
reducing criminal activityaboard buses?
A. by Mr.
Savage: We really havenÕt used video
equipment on TransitAuthority buses. We rarely would use it unless we had some
intelligenceindicating a specific crime pattern being formed. We have the
expertise to pickthe right type of camera, the right type of audio equipment,
install it in away that it canÕt be noticed, but we really haven't had need to
use it thatmuch on city buses.
Q. Tom Marr with theAmtrak Police Department. This
question is directed to Tom Savage, and it hasto do with graffiti, a costly
problem that occurs in every city across thenation. What is it exactly that
youÕre doing to keep the trainsgraffiti-free? Does thatgraffiti-free policy extend to your facilities?
A. by Mr. Savage: A fewyears ago we used our operating
budget to hire about 700 cleaners. What we didwas to put those cleaners at the
end of each of the subway lines we have. Whena subway train came in with a
graffiti hit, we would immediately take it out ofservice. Then the cleaners at
the end of the line would attack it immediatelyand eliminate the graffiti. Our
idea was to eliminate the graffiti quickly,then the ÒartistÓ would not see his
work.
ThatÕs how wehandled it on a train that was in service. To protect trains that were out ofservice and at our facilities, we used our capital budget. We made investmentsin better chain link fences and in barbed wire. At one point we even pilotedusing dogs at some of the locations. It was an increase in human resources thatreally did the trick. We got word out that graffiti was unacceptable in theCity of New York, especially on our subway system. And the Transit Policebecame very aggressive. They made a number of really high profile collars.
What we found was that the public did have an
opinionabout graffiti. Contrary to some of the statements that were being made,
thingslike, ÒItÕs just kids. Leave them alone, theyÕre not harming anybody,Ó
thereality was that it set a tone that the system that was out of control.
ThatÕswhat we did, and we pretty much eliminated graffiti.
When we felt we had good control of that
particularproblem, we were able to cut back on the number of cleaners. We did
it throughattrition; a cleaner was an entry level position with the Transit
Authority.
The problem we now have is withkids scratching the glass. We call it scratchfitti. And itÕs tougher thangraffiti to catch because the kids are smart. They tend to travel in groups andcreate a diversion. Once thatÕs accomplished, itÕs not very difficult to scratcha quick line across the glass. ThatÕs the latest. And, by the way, itÕs a veryexpensive problem throughout the transportation industry. We would like someoneto come up with a solution. Although it doesnÕt relate to life and death likesome of the other issues weÕre talking about today, it certainly does relate tothe national transportation budget.
A. by Chief
Frazier: WeÕretrying a few pilots on that. One is using mylar,
but it is extremely expensive.Then, too, when a piece of glass gets damaged to
the point where you cannot seeinto the car, it becomes a clear security issue.
Q. Detective
Carter, Contra Costa CountySheriffÕs Department, attached to the AC Transit
Unit. What types of trainingclasses, exercises or media material do you have
for law enforcement to respondto a tactical situation involving rail or bus
lines?
A. by Chief
Frazier: There isa program that is getting underway called Operation
Respond. This program isbased in Washington, DC and it grew out of some work in
Texas. It provides thefirst responders to incidents (both passenger train and
freight train forhazardous materials) with information about what they are
going to confront. Ittells about the nature of the car, the access points, and
the emergencyprocedures related to those sorts of things. This program is
available rightnow and has a training center at Texas A& M University. If
you would likefurther information, I can get that for you. Right now two Amtrak
locomotivesand some cars are there. The locomotive, for instance, has been
burned so thatyou can visualize and actually feel what you may confront. I know
that courseis quite well received, particularly on the fire side. Often fire
personnel arethe first to board these trains and deal with the issues. I would
certainlyrecommend the program.
A. by Agent
Webb: I would mention,as I did in my own talk, we put
together a rail transit security group meetinglast November or December. IÕm
active in the local bomb association. CarolynSlezak from Amtrak Police came and
gave us a slide presentation about thethings a bomb technician would do in a
bomb sweep. Railroads are different;there are different voltages and different
boxes that you donÕt want to openwhen you donÕt know what youÕre opening and
that kind of thing. It would behelpful to get that slide series and make it
available to us. Then, there wouldbe a whole range of things. We can talk at the
end of this symposium, and I cantell you when we will have a meeting of that
group. It will help orient you andlet you know whatÕs available in your own
area.
A.
by
Mr.Savage: With respect to training, we have an intense tracksafety
course that all police officers in New York City are currently goingthrough.
Again this is after the merge that occurred last year; so far weÕvetrained
12,000 police officers in the basics of walking on the tracks. ItÕsvery
interesting when you attend one of these. When we teach the young
policeofficers the safety basics, theyÕre almost in shock to find out how
dangerousit is down in the subway. It gives them a better sense of how to
handle asituation once they are brought into it. In addition to that, we have
aseparate class for captains and above. This is sort of a critical
incidenttraining class, so that when a captain or above responds to a
particularsituation that person basically takes charge. We have a third set of
classesthat are for the homeless outreach and vandal unit. That again deals
with adifferent issue on how to handle the homeless.
Comment by Moderator Rod Diridon: Beforewe
go to the next question, I would like to complement your system. One of
thereasons you were asked to come here to speak is because of the very
progressiveactions your public transportation system has taken toward not only
theproblems of terrorism, but also the problems of vandalism. A credit to you
andyour recently retired president, Alan Kiepper, who was such a model
andaggressive person in terms of taking care of that problem when he was
firsthired.
A.
by
Mr.Savage: Alan KiepperÕs an example of a Transit
AuthorityPresident who really incorporated the Transit Police into the
managementstructure of a large transit authority. As I said this morning, prior
to themerge, the Chief of the Transit Police also carried the designation as a
SeniorVice President. Alan Kiepper was intense about having this Senior VP and
Chiefof Police as part of the decision making process on everything he did. And
toAlan KiepperÕs credit, we reduced crime 50%, or close to 60%, during
histenure. That includes serious felony crime also.
Q.
Rob Vitale. I have
aquick question regarding the area of training. Here at the University all
staffand faculty have been asked to read documents about how to identify
packagesthat may be dangerous. In fact, we recently self-tested this when we
had astrange package; fortunately, it wasnÕt anything dangerous. What type
oftraining, education, or awareness can you provide to users of
transitsystems? What should we be
lookingfor? What can the lay
persondevelop as far as an attitude or awareness of whatÕs going on so that
users canbe part of the eyes and ears of the system? Or would you not want to do that type of thing?
A.
by Chief Frazier:Most definitely we want users to beour eyes and ears.
No question about it. Mostly what youÕre looking for iswhatÕs unusual. At
airports, theyÕre getting identification at the beginningand then again right
before you get on the flight. They are asking you ifanyone else packed your
bag, or did anything with it, and those sorts ofthings. As you know,
transportation facilities are basically wide open; thepublic comes into them,
and they bring luggage. So when luggage is abandoned,or when no one can figure
out whose it is, or something like that, thatÕs veryimportant. At Amtrak, we
strive to impress upon our employees and vendors andothers who work in the
facilities to report it to the police immediately whenthey see that sort of
thing.
A.
by
AgentWebb: Surprisingly enough, weÕre not the leaders in this ifyou
look at what they do in Great Britain and Israel in terms of alerting
thepublic. The Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard have posters
immediatelyavailable. If they have a campaign on, they can hang the posters in
prominentplaces and people get used to seeing them. TheyÕre kind of like a
marketingpersonÕs point of sale. The public gets used to seeing the posters
when theyenter the stations or stops or whatever. I think there are some very
welldeveloped systems around the world, and itÕs just a matter of bringing
theminto the United States, not reinventing the wheel. We just need to share
theinformation so that everyone gets used to the level of threat, what belongs
andwhat doesnÕt belong. In Britain they change them frequently, even the style
ofthem so they just donÕt become Òthat old campaign poster that was hung up
therein 1983.Ó They make it
pertinentto what the issue is that day.
A.
by
Mr.Savage: We went out and purchased X-ray equipment for our
mailrooms, and everybody at headquarters, our two central administrative
buildings,became used to seeing a stamp coming across our envelope that said it
waspassed through the X-ray machine. WeÕve been doing that for about four or
fiveyears now. ItÕs become a fact of life. I donÕt want to say it slows the maildown
once it gets into the Transit Authority, but we do it as a cost of
doingbusiness.
Q.
Detective Jones
withthe Contra Costa SheriffÕs Department. Chief Savage, you mentioned that
youdonated a bus as an experimental vehicle. Could you expand on that and let
usknow when the information derived from it will be passed out?
A.
by
Mr.Savage: Actually, thatÕs happening this Monday. The FBI
isinvolved, as is our New York City Police Department Emergency Rescue Unit
andthe Transit Authority. ItÕs another example of a joint effort we make
intesting and training. I canÕt tell you exactly when the results are going to
beavailable, but I certainly will try to get some additional information to
youon them. WeÕre basically taking one of our excess buses, a spare factor in thefleet,
and one that reflects the type of bus that we use quite a bit. ItÕsprobably a
GMC, and they are just going to test the heck out of it.
Q.
Steve Block,
writer.Mr. Jackson, your people are often the first on the sceneÐlike in
OklahomaCity. Does their training include specialized techniques for preserving
thecrime scene or for protecting evidence? And in conjunction with that, what
happens if you need to give first aidor rescue someone from an area that the
FBI or the local authority says iscritical for evidence protection.
A.
by
Mr.Jackson: Probably one of the most problematic areas that wedeal
with is that there are different agencies each looking out for their
bestinterest with regard to their responsibilities. The police agencies
donÕtintend to take anything away from the patient, but they are trying to
recreatethe scene. To answer your question specifically, we do training with
all of ourfield personnel with regard to evidence preservation. They do have
the ultimateresponsibility of doing what is necessary for the patient while
hopefully notbroaching over to that type of problem. But they do sometimes.
A.
by
AgentWebb: Steve, IÕd say maybe Denis used the wrong term;
itÕsnot problematic. It hasnÕt been a problem for us. You know the paramedics
aregoing to do what they are going to have to do, and weÕll have to play catch
upand thatÕs fine. Because you know youÕre not going to fiddle around with
humanlife to save a scrap of paper or something like that. I did a presentation
to300 medics of the San Francisco Paramedic Association after Oklahoma City.
Iwas surprised at how little a problem it was. It really didnÕt come up
there.Everybody just knew they had a job to do, and weÕd get the evidence one
way orthe other somewhere after the fact. I think itÕs just good common sense,
and wedonÕt have to be stepping over each other to get to the point.
A.
by
Mr.Jackson: That was a bad choice of words. That training
doesencompass how to preserve the evidence to the best of your ability. When I sayproblematic,
I mean that we may create problems for the investigation becauseof treating the
patient. It is not problematic between the agencies.
Q. GuyNewgrin,
San Jose Fire Department. Two questions, really. I was glad that youmentioned
the ICS System during the presentation, because one of the objectivesof the
seminar here is to address ways we can immediately respond to
terroristactivities, and the ICS System is very important in that. Typically in
a largedisaster like Oklahoma City, the EMS, the Emergency Medical Services
Group,would be broken down to probably three groups. The triage, treatment
andtransportation groups who would report to an EMS Branch Director or
theOperations Officer, usually run by the Fire Department. They would in
turnreport to the incident commander who would usually be the Fire Department
orlaw enforcement if it was on a highway. In the case of a crime scene
likeOklahoma City, it would be a unified command between police and fire.
Youmentioned that one of your ambulance personnel set up the Incident
CommandSystem. Can you describe to us how it evolved from that point?
A. by Mr. Jackson: The
IncidentCommand System was specific to the medical component to it. Clearly,
fire andlaw enforcement were there in timely conjunction. The EMS component of
thosethree branches, plus the one that dealt probably equally with all of
thetreatment and transport section, the morgue, were all set up within that
EMSstructure, not the full IC System. When the full ICS was in place, the
EMScomponent blended neatly into that. Does that answer your question?
Q.
GuyNewgrin. Yes, but can you also explain how that system grew and developed?
A. by Mr. Jackson: I can not
providethat for you; I was not there.
Comment by Moderator Rod Diridon: Wehave
just a few minutes left, and while you are thinking of any other questions,let
me ask one, if I may. WeÕre responsible in the Institute (and the reasonwhy
this panel was chosen as such) for the area of surface transportation inthe
United States. WeÕre looking to improve that based on international
surfacetransportation policy. And we want to make sure we donÕt leave the
impressionfrom this discussion that mass transportation is in any way not safe
or lesssafe than, letÕs say, highways. IÕd like to first note that research
indicatesa little over 46,000 people were killed on our nationÕs highways last
year withseveral hundred thousand people injured. Can you give me a relative
comment interms of the safety of the mass transportation systems that you are
aware of,gentlemen? My guess is
that farfewer than 1,000 were probably killed, and the injuries would be no
more thanseveral thousand.
A.
by
ChiefFrazier: In terms of passenger rail throughout thecountryÐwhich
would, of course, exclude other modes of transit because I donÕthave those
figuresÐin the last three years, there have been a total of 16fatalities as
compared with the 46,000 you mentioned.
A.
by
Mr.Savage: Unfortunately, I just donÕt know the exact
statistics.I do know that our problem is that when you have one or two of these
isolatedincidents, it takes a while for the agency to bounce back. We all know
thatmass transit, especially in New York, is much safer than private vehicle.
ButthatÕs the fact of life; there are probably hundreds of car crashes andfatalities
every day on the streets of the metropolitan area. WeÕre in thelimelight
somewhat when an unusual occurrence like the 14th Streetcrash, or
the fire bombing, occurs. I know weÕre definitely safer than normalmotor
vehicle use.
Q.
Good afternoon,gentlemen.
My name is Willie Jackson, and IÕm with AC Transit. In light of thecomments
just made, would you say that most people traveling on mass transitare
considered a captive audience and as such are not quite aware of how safethe
actual systems are? Chief and other distinguished gentlemen, how do youmarket
the safe travel ability of the various systems you are responsible for?
A.
by
Mr.Savage: I guess the key word ÒmarketÓ is right. In our case,itÕs
how fast we bounce back; how fast we evacuate our passengers in a crisistype of
environment; how professionally weÕre able to do it. I think we do itvery well
in New York. Again, itÕs because of that theory I mentioned
thismorningÐpractice, practice, practice. WeÕre not called the media capital of
theworld for no reasonÐNew York is. There are three major television
stations,plus Fox 5, there now. And we have many daily newspapers, and weÕre
frequentlyin the press. I can say thatÕs probably a strength of ours. When
somethingunusual happens, we usually are ableÐ99% of the timeÐto respond
without muchcriticism from the press. That fact eventually goes to the riding
public.Again, because weÕre such a large area, we get one or two incidents that
on thefirst blush sound horrific, and some of the damage that is done is
horrific,but by and large, because we practice so much and we train so much,
weÕre ableto evacuate and get our customers to hospitals rather quickly if, in
fact, itis a major incident.
A.
by ChiefFrazier: Of
course, when something happens to an Amtrak Trainin the United States, it is
big newsÐfor example, when a train derails, or whenthe New Jersey Transit had a
collision, and within a week, the Marc and Amtrakcollided in Silver Spring. I
think that the way you best deal with these issuesis important. First of all,
the media truthfully reports that there have notbeen any incidents in X amount
of time, or something like that. Then the agencyitself responds with the truth.
Then the federal government responds with thetruth of whatÕs going on; they say
that it is safe. There are these numerousagencies involved as railroad
transportation is highly regulated, and safety isat the forefront of the
operating rules. There are associations like the AARthat promote safety and the
National Transportation Safety Board. When theycome out, their distinct
objective is to identify what happened and to reportthat. That helps to insure
that there is no recurrence wherever a recurrencecan be prevented. I think in terms
of the Òcaptive audienceÓ in the market, yousimply make sure that you do
everything in your power to communicate well; youtell the truth about what has
happened, and you talk about the precautions thatare in place. I think that the
federal agencies and the carriers themselves doa pretty responsible job of
that.
Q.
Good
afternoon,gentlemen. My name is Ovid Holmes, and IÕm with the Contra Costa
CountySheriffÕs Department. IÕve had a quite a bit of experience in training
foremergency preparedness in tactical operations, and I did attend the
sameseminar as Agent Webb in San Francisco which the EMS people did; I found
thatquite interesting. Even more interesting is that we had done a
multi-casualty,multi-agency, multi-discipline emergency response about a week before.
I findthat this is not a common thing. It would be of interest to me for
agencies toget together and work out, through the Incident Command System,
multi-casualty,multi-agency, multi-discipline command exercises which would
include involvingthe fire departments, police departments, and hospitals. I
think Mr. Jacksonmentioned the various tiers of treatment; thatÕs been done in
an exercise. Ithink itÕs time for, or past due, to start with these kinds of
trainingscenarios. It is out there, it does exist, and there are examples. I
would hopethat you are thinking about it, or youÕve already done it, or youÕre
going todo it.
Q: Request for clarification: Areyou
talking now about a national level response or a regional?
A. Well,most
responses are regional because most incidents are regional. But again wetalked
about a national standard. WeÕve used the Incident Command System outhere with
great success for some time, and look at each of the incidents thathave
occurred with Amtrak or other transit agencies like the recent busincident in
Florida. These are regional incidents, but they oftentimes involvenational
entities. For example, Amtrak is working with the FBI and the firstresponders,
which would be local sheriff or police and emergency responsepersonnel, the
medical and fire field.
A. by Agent Webb: We do a lot
oftraining with local law enforcement on various scenarios. The thing about
thescenarios is that they take a lot of time and money to set up; I donÕt
thinkany of us would be opposed to it as long as we can look far enough in
advanceto schedule it. Interestingly enough, we are mandated to do an annual
airportexercise, and the FAA and FBI cooperate. We do that with them because
federallaw demands it; we do it at San Jose and some of the other airports. It
has notcome down from the bureaucracy, either the Federal Railway
Administration orthe Department of Transportation, to do these same kinds of
exercises onsurface transportation vehicles. In that sense, the airline
industry, theairports, and the FAA are far ahead, and we find those very
valuable. One yearwe canceled it because we had a real earthquake, and we
didnÕt have to worryabout it. The FAA demands it on the airport side, and
perhaps as a nationalpolicy issue it may be something whose time is due.
A.
by Mr. Jackson: I
wouldlike to editorialize on that because it was one of the recommendations
thatcame out. I think the expression that a rising tide raises all ships and
boatssays that we need to not wait for a mandate to come down to us, but rather
weneed to start at our local level encompassing the interaction of
thoseagencies. And we need to articulate what those standards are to those
peoplewho will listen to us.
A.
by
Mr.Savage: I think what happens as your area gets more involvedin
these type of exercises is that you learn as you go along. ItÕs been
ourexperience that events happen that constantly keep us training and on our
toes.Pat Webb was talking about all of the effort that goes into one of
theseeventsÐlong hours and the rotten food. In New York last October, we had
twoevents that kept us constantly going, one was the PopeÕs visit and the other
asthe 50th anniversary of the United Nations. It felt like we
wereworking from July right through October constantly meeting with the FBI and
allof the agenciesÐthe usual suspects if you want to call it that. We
weremeeting, and we were looking at every nook and cranny on the East side
ofManhattan. I think what saved us was that the Pope traveled in the
PresidentÕshelicopter when he celebrated some of his Masses. We had a hectic
season. ThankGod nothing happened, but we did a lot of work that in a sense was
practice. Weconstantly did a lot of investigation and a lot of follow-up work
on differentleadsÐyou know, the ordinary because of the un-ordinary. The more
you do this,the more events that come into your metropolitan area, the more you
realizethat this is, in a sense, a practice drill.
Moderator Rod Diridon: LetÕs end
thequestions there and give each one of our panelists who have come a long way achance
for a brief wrap-up on their comments, which will then be the postscript to the
session in the proceedings. WeÕll begin with a thank you to eachone of them.
First thanks to Vice President for Technical Operations, DenisJackson, American
Medical Response. Denis, do you want to take the twomicrophones and give us
about a minute wrap-up on your comments and on thesession today.
Comment by Denis Jackson: I think thelessons
that we learned are to communicate, communicate, and communicate witheach other
to help to instill structures that will be positive for the future.Continuous
improvement is something that we need to hold close to our chests.We need to
practice and improve on systems as we work with different agencies.Those
agencies in turn work with each other toward establishing systems,setting
standards and setting goals.
Moderator Rod Diridon: Thank you,
Denis.And thank you, Chief Security Officer for the New York City Transit
Authority,Tom Savage.
Comment by Tom Savage: IÕve said it a
fewtimes, and I think itÕs important to say it againÐpractice, practice,
practice.ThatÕs really the bottom line here. Do a lot of training with all of
youremployees, a lot of communicating; let them know that weÕre in a different
era.And do a lot of inter-agency type of practice drills. The more you
practice,the more youÕll be prepared. Thank you.
Moderator Rod Diridon: Thank you,
Tom.Counter-terrorism Squad Supervisory Special Agent, Patrick Webb, Federal
Bureauof Investigation. Thank you.
Comment by Patrick Webb: Thanks, Rod. As
Ilook at the crowd out here I continue to be amazed by the fascination
ofterrorism as a topic with the public and law enforcement. If we were
talkingabout the theft of air bags from new cars I donÕt think weÕd have this
many peoplehere. But be that as it may, to echo everyone else, cooperation,
liaisoning andcreating that interface with all these agencies is whatÕs really
important outhere. At the same time, we need to avoid frightening the public
while beingprepared for whatever occurs.
Moderator Rod Diridon: Thank you,
Pat.Chief of Police Ernest Frazier from the National Railroad
PassengerAssociation, Amtrak.
Comment by Ernest Frazier: Well,IÕve been in
night school for the last eight years, so the first thing I wouldlike to do is encourage
your students, particularly, to become involved intransportation. My final
comment is that what the Institute has done here todayis what we need to do in
all of AmericaÕs communities. We need to face the verydifficult issues that are
before us today, specially terrorism. So I thank youfor your effort, and I
think those of you who have come here to be with us. Iappreciate your
acknowledgment.
Closing comments by Moderator Rod Diridon: Thankyou
very much, Chief. ItÕs interesting that your emphasis on education is thesame
emphasis that the president of Amtrak gave us at our last TrusteesÕmeeting. Tom
Downs was very emphatic about our education programs. I think hesaid something
about several hundred members of Amtrak retiring in next severalyears and not
seeing a source of new managers moving into the industry. ThatÕsone of the
reasons why we have those masterÕs candidates out there learning theindustry.
Thank you all for being here. I know many of you havealready ordered copies of todayÕs transcripts. Should others like to do solater, you may either order through our World Wide Web page or by sending us aletter asking for copies. Thanks again for being here. I assume youÕre alltaking transit on the way home, but if you are not, drive carefully.
PAGE 1 0F 5
1.0
BACKGROUND
The Officeof System Safety within the Metropolitan Transportation AuthorityÐNew York CityTransit conducts four Interagency Emergency Preparedness Drills per year aspart of a continuous effort to promote emergency responder familiarity with theunique transit environment as well as to foster interagency coordination duringreal emergencies on NYCT property. Outside agencies such as the New York CityFire Department (FDNY), New York City Police Department (NYPD) and EmergencyMedical Services (EMS) are the primary participants, with key support functionsprovided by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), NewYork City Department of Traffic (DOT), MayorÕs Office of Emergency Management(OEM), Salvation Army of Greater New York, and American Red Cross.
Representatives fromagencies such as New York State Public Transportation Safety Board (PTSB),National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), MTA Inspector General Office,Transport Workers Union (TWU), MTA-Long Island Railroad (LIRR), MTA-MetroNorthCommuter Railroad (MCNR), AMTRAK, New Jersey Transit (NJT), and the Port AuthorityTrans-Hudson Corporation (PATH) frequently serve as observers during thedrills.
Drill 95-3 was held on September 23,
1995at the 57th Street/ 6th Avenue Station (B/Q routes)
inManhattan and simulated a Òdeliberate gas releaseÓ. Emergency response
personnelwere required to make a determination on the presence of a Ònerve
agentÓchemical based only on the medical symptoms (written on paper and placed
on theÒvictimÕsÓ person) exhibited by the victims and the results of air
monitoringand material sampling. Drill coordinators supplied the
appropriateinstrumentation readings to emergency personnel depending on the
exact mannerin which the air monitoring and/or material sampling was conducted.
Theinstrumentation readings that were provided to emergency personnel, coupledwith
the victimsÕ medical symptoms were consistent with the properties of anerve
agent. Additional references on the planning and progression of theexercise can
be found on the following attachments:
Attachment 3: FDNYDispatcher
Report
Attachment 4: NYPDÐTransitBureau
Dispatcher Report
Attachment 5: EMSDispatcher
Report
Attachment 6: NYCTÐRapidTransit
Operations Train Incident Report
NYCT EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS EXERCISE 95-3
PAGE 2 OF 5
2.0
SUMMARY OF
COMMENTSAND SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS
On October 30, 1995 a formal critique was held in twosessions. The morning session was attended by each agencyÕs designatedevaluator(s) who was present during the exercise. The afternoon sessionincluded the incident commanders who participated in the exercise. As a resultof the critique, the following comments/recommendations were derived byconsensus of the meeting attendees:
Comment 3-95-1: Onlyone
or two stairway were used for station ingress and egress. This created
someconfusion at the stairway locations and impeded access to the station.
Recommendation: To
expeditethe simultaneous opposing flow of emergency response personnel entering
thestation with passengers being evacuated from the station, multiple
stairwaysshould immediately be designated by the first responding units as
eitherstation entry or exit stairs.
Comment 3-95-2: Therewere
instances whereby interagency communication between tactical functions andthe
incident commander was lacking. This lack of communication manifesteditself
through the following observations:
á
EMS units wereobstructed
from the scene by parked FDNY and NYPD vehicles and subsequently hadto park two
blocks from the scene.
á
dual
decontaminationareas established by FDNY and NYPD that may have resulted in
confusion due totheir location.
á
staging areas for
eachagency were not reported to incident commander.
á
completion of
tasksassigned by incident commander were not relayed back upon completion of
thetask.
Recommendation: Alldecisions
relating to the establishment of staging and decontamination areasand
hot/control/cold zones should be made by the overall incident commander
toprevent confusion over multiple decontamination areas as well as to
avertunnecessary street blockages that could delay incoming emergency
responseunits. In addition, completed tasks must be reported back to the
incidentcommander.
Comment 3-95-3: FDNYRescue
1 and NYPD Emergency Services Unit personnel did not follow proper
airmonitoring protocol. A more general air monitoring approach with
multipleinstrumentation should have been used for an ÒunknownÓ chemical.
Recommendation: These
unitsshould be re-trained in proper air monitoring protocol for incidents of thistype.
Comment 3-95-4: Patientand
equipment terminology between agencies was inconsistent. For example, theterms
ÒvictimÓ/ÓpatientÓ and ÒstretcherÓ/Óstokes basketÓ each conveys
differentconnotations for FDNY and EMS. This could have delayed medical treatment
and/ordeployment of equipment as a result of misinterpretation.
NYCT EMERGENCYPREPAREDNESS EXERCISE 95-3
PAGE 3 OF 5
Recommendation: Interagencycommunication
should avoid the use of ÒjargonÓ whenever possible.
Comment 3-95-5: Itwas
difficult to keep track of emergency personnel on the platform due todifferent
colored protective clothing (FDNY Rescue 1-yellow; FDNY HazMat-grey;NYPD
ESU-yellow; EMS-blue).
Recommendation: Protectivesuits
should be standardized and labeled with an appropriate agencyidentification.
Comment 3-95-6: Therewas
a delay in getting emergency vehicles moved when needed.
Recommendation: Whenrequesting
that an emergency vehicle be moved, the vehicle number and theagency that the
vehicle belongs to should be conveyed with the request to thecommand post.
Comment 3-95-7: Therewas
no containment of the decontamination areas in the station mezzanine leveland
street level.
Recommendation: Ensure
thatproper containment is established and coordinated through the incidentcommander.
Comment 3-95-8 ÒVictimsÓwere
not held after decontamination for law enforcement investigation issues.
Recommendation: Upondecontamination
of victims, they should be held for law enforcement agenciesfor investigation
purposes, witness statements, etc.
Comment 3-95-9 NYPDdid
not actively search for ÒwitnessesÓ (train crew, passengers, etc.) duringthe
incident.
Recommendation: Re-emphasizethe
need for proper investigative procedures for incidents of this nature.
Comment 3-95-10: ÒDOAÓ
(deceased)victims were not decontaminated.
Recommendation: Protocolfor
decontaminating ÒDOAÕsÓ should be followed.
Comment 3-95-11: Baseline vitals for chemical
emergencyresponders were not available to EMS.
Recommendation: Baseline vitals should
be takenat the beginning of each tour and carried on the vehicle to ensure that
theyare available for EMS personnel.
Comment 3-95-12: Safety
Officersfor each agency could not be readily identified.
Recommendation: An
arm bandor other visible marking should be worn by each agencyÕs Safety Officer
at thescene.
NYCT EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS EXERCISE 95-3
PAGE 4 OF 5
Comment 3-95-13 No
NYCTliaison was present at the Interagency Command Post.
Recommendation: Ensure
thatthe authorized NYCT liaison reports to the Interagency Command Post
uponarrival at the scene.
Comment 3-95-14 NYCTDivision
of Stations personnel did not make an announcement in a timely mannerto
evacuate the station and did not unlock all emergency gates and entrances.
Recommendation: ReinstructStations
personnel in the correct procedures for evacuating stations.
Comment 3-95-15: The NYPD
TransitPolice Bureau Supervisor who was placed in charge at the scene by NYPD
PrecinctSupervisor was not adequately prepared.
Recommendation: Reinstructall
NYPD Transit Bureau Supervisors in the proper procedures relating toincidents
of this type.
Althoughnot related to the performance of the emergency responders at the scene, thefollowing comments were elicited by the meeting attendees in the interest ofimproving the conduct of future drills:
á
All video tapes
shouldincorporate time/date coding on the film to allow better
tracking of the events shown on the video tofacilitate
editing.
á
A sufficient number
ofevaluators should be provided by each agency who are
knowledgeable in the area that they are assigned
toevaulate.
á
All major
agenciesparticipating in the drill need to be present at all pre-drill
meetings as well as the formal critique.
á
Business owners in
thearea where the drill will take place need to be notified in
advance that a drill will take place.
PAGE 5 OF 5
3.0
CONCLUSION
Thegeneral consensus of the evaluators and participating personnel from eachagency indicated that the drill went well and was a valuable learningexperience for dealing with a real incident of this type should it ever occuron NYCT property. As with previous NYCT Emergency Preparedness Drills, themajority of the comments were focused primarily on the need for greaterinteragency teamwork. This drill was unique in that it underscored thepotential for a large number of casualties resulting from an incident of thistype. A greater effort must be placed in the development of interagencycoordination in the interest of controlling an incident with minimal injuriesto the public and emergency response personnel.
TheNYCT is continuously seeking new ideas and new ways to conduct Emergency PreparednessDrills such as these and appreciates your continued support. Thank you for youparticipation in this drill and we look forward to seeing you at the next one.
OVERVIEW
TheMTA New York City Transit (NYCT) is conducting an Interagency EmergencyPreparedness Exercise on Saturday, September 23, 1995. As a result of the SarinGas attacks occurring in Japan earlier this year the NYCT will be conducting anexercise involving a deliberate chemical release on a train operating withinthe subway system. The goal of the exercise is to enable the NYCT and emergencyresponse agencies to evaluate existing plans for handling an incident of thistype under a controlled environment. The key to success in this type of anincident is the quick identification of the cause of the incident, i.e. that isa hazardous gas release. This information can then be passed on to theemergency response agencies and responding NYCT employees to prevent them fromentering a hazardous environment without the proper protective gear. Inaddition, this exercise will provide an opportunity for emergency responseagencies to work with each other and the NYCT to develop their communication& coordination skills. From the experience and knowledge gained throughconducting this exercise, operating policies and procedures will be modified tobetter ensure the safety of our customers, employees and emergency responders.
Exercise95-3
will start approximately 9:45 am and will take place in Manhattan at the57th
Street station on the 6th Avenue Line (B &Q).The scenario will
involve a deliberate chemical release on a Queens bound Qtrain entering the 57th
Street station. Somewhere between theRockefeller Center Station and 57th
Street Station a packagecontaining the hazardous substance will begin to leak
exposing the occupants ofthe car to the chemical. When the train pulls into the
subway station and opensits doors, the passengers in the car containing the
hazardous chemical willstumble out of the car onto the platform complaining of
difficulty breathing,burning eyes and vomiting. One of the victims will
collapse in the doorway ofthe train preventing the train from leaving the
station. Seeing this theconductor will go to investigate and will begin to
experience similar symptoms.The train operator upon noticing this will radio
the RTO Command Center withwhat he has observed. In the mean time a passenger
on the platform, upon seeingthe passengers having difficulties, will run to the
Token Booth and inform theclerk of the passengers symptoms. The clerk will
notify the Stations CommandCenter via the Emergency Booth Communications
System.
Whenthe RTO Command Center receives this information it will immediately contactthe Fire Department and the New York City Police Transit Bureau requestingassistance. It will then notify all of the operating departments, via the sixwire, of the incident and will inform all employees to not enter the stationuntil they have first contacted their Office, to prevent people withoutprotective clothing from entering the hazardous environment.
EmergencyResponse personnel from the Fire Department, City of New York (FDNY), New YorkCity Emergency Medical Services (EMS), New York City Police Department (NYPD),New York City Police Transit Bureau, Office of Emergency Management (OEM),Mayors Office of Operations, Salvation Army of Greater New York, American RedCross, New York City Department of Transportation, New York City Department ofEnvironmental Protection (DEP) and various departments from within the NYCTwill take part in this exercise.
REAL EMERGENCY
Inthe
event an actual emergency should arise during the exercise, the term ÒCODEREDÓ
will be used to preface allemergency radio transmissions. Upon hearing ÒCODE
REDÓ the exercise will temporarily halt until the actualemergency can be
handled. If the nature of the emergency is serious enough theexercise will be
stopped.
OBSERVERS
Allobservers
upon arriving at the exercise site should sign-in with arepresentative from the
NYCT, Office of System Safety. They will be providedwith and should display an observer
tag. The Observers will have an opportunityto view the exercise from the street
level or on the platform. Please do notleave the designated areas for Observers
without first advising therepresentative from the Office of System Safety. Under
no circumstances shouldan observer take part in any way in the operation of the
exercise unlessrequested to do so by one of the exercise coordinators. This
is for the safety of all observers as well asexercise participants.
CRITIQUE
Aformal
critique will be held in the weeks following the exercise.
Anyonewho
would like to send comments regarding the exercise, please send or fax themto
the address listed below, attention of Salvatore Gilardi Jr.
Officeof
System Safety, Fire Safety
370Jay
Street, Room 607
Brooklyn,NY
11201
FaxÐ(718)243-3664
SPECIAL THANKS
The New York City Transit would like to give specialthanks
to the following organizations for their participation in this exercise:
FireDepartment,
City of New York
NewYork
City Emergency Medical Services
NewYork
City Police Department
NewYork
City Police, Transit Bureau
NewYork
City Police Department Recruits
NewYork
City Department of Transportation
NewYork
City Department o Environmental Protection
NewYork
City Office of Emergency Management
MayorsOffice
of Operations
NYCTDepartment
of Subways
TheSalvation
Army of Greater New York
AmericanRed
Cross
NYCTOffice
of System Safety
Allexercise
participants
We would like to give special thanks to Chief
ThomasHaring & Phil McArdle from the Fire Department, City of New York, for
theirhelp and cooperation in setting up the exercise.
The passenger will exit the train (upon first
seeingthe conductor walk down the platform toward him) coughing and holding his
neckas if he/she was choking and proceed to the token booth on the
mezzanine.He/she will run past the conductor without saying anything.
The victim should then proceed to communicate to
thetoken booth clerk that he/she was on the train and saw a liquid on the floor
ofthe last car and two people passed out on the platform, possibly from the
fumesof the liquid.
The token booth clerk should then contact the
StationControl Center and advise them:
ÒTHISIS
A DRILL, a passenger, gasping for air and choking, advised me
that two people
requiremedical assistance, possibly from some type of liquid in the last car of
thenorthbound train in the station, I repeat, two passengers need
medicalassistance, from some type of liquid in the last car of the Southbound
train.THIS IS A DRILL.Ó
Station Control Center shouldproceed with their normal notifications preceeding all transmissions with ÒTHISIS A DRILL. NYCT INTERAGENCY EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS DRILL 95-3.Ó
Acronyms
AAR Association of American Railroads
ABS AutomaticBlock
System
ACTransit Alameda/Contra
Costa County Transit District
ATF Bureauof
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
(USTreasury)
AMR AmericanMedical
Response
Amtrak AmericaÕsNational
Railroad Passenger Corporation
APD AmtrakPolice
Department
Caltrans CaliforniaDepartment
of Transportation
CCTV ClosedCircuit
Television
CHP CaliforniaHighway
Patrol
CISD CriticalIncident
Stress Debriefing
CTC CentralizedTraffic
Control
CTEC CentralizedTraffic
and Electrification Control
DOB Departmentof
Buses
DOJ Departmentof
Justice
DOT U.S.Department
of Transportation
DTC DirectTraffic
Control
EMS EmergencyMedical
Service
EMRA EmergencyMedical
Response Authority
FBI FederalBureau
of Investigation
FEMA FederalEmergency
Management Agency
FRA FederalRailroad
Administration
FTA FederalTransit
Administration
GMC GeneralMotors
Corporation
GPS GlobalPositioning
System
ICS IncidentCommand
System
IISTPS NormanY.
Mineta International Institute For Surface Transportation Policy Studies
ISTEA IntermodalSurface
Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991
MARC MarylandRail
Commuter System
NCAA NationalCollegiate
Athletic Association
NCIC NationalCrime
Information Center
NYCTA NewYork
City Transit Authority
NYPD NewYork
Police Department
OIS Officeof
Intelligence and Security
PDD-39 PresidentialDecision
Directive 39
SEMS StandardizedEmergency
Management System
SFO SanFrancisco
Airport
SJSU SanJose
State University