Metro Train Operators Asleep at the "Wheel"

This is slightly old news, but we haven't discussed it here yet. There were two instances in June where passengers captured cell phone video of Metro train operators doing anything BUT being alert and paying attention to the track ahead. In one case, the operator appears to be sending the world's longest text message and doesn't look up for a while. In an even more disturbing instance, the operator is actually asleep! I guess the job is so tough when they are on automated mode that they don't think much of falling asleep and hoping the train doesn't have any problems...like say smashing into the back of a stopped train and causing a tragic and fatal accident.

We don't want to imply that the operator involved in the June 22nd accident was doing either of these things. As far as we know now, she did what she was supposed to and everything that could possibly fail, failed. I find that highly suspicious, but I am definitely not going to put fault on one person without knowing exactly what happened. But the events of 6/22 have brought a tremendous amount of attention to this kind of stuff. As it should have. This is beyond ridiculous. These operators are not just in charge of making sure a computer operated train gets from point A to point B...they are in charge of the lives of several thousand people. That must be the focus and WMATA must deal with their employees with that in the forefront of their minds.