Solon seeks probe of near disaster at MRT

A party-list congressman has called for a congressional inquiry to unravel the truth behind Tuesday’s alleged near deadly train disaster that was concealed from the public by the management of the Metro Rail Transit.

PBA party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles said he learned that an MRT train had derailed due to a serious system malfunction last Tuesday at the MRT 3 North Ave. station in Quezon City.

Nograles said no report about the incident has come to public knowledge because the MRT management “opted to hush it up.”

He accused the MRT of keeping the incident under wraps in a bid to cover up the gross negligence and inefficiency of the mass transit system’s maintenance provider and “conceal the true state of the MRT 3 system.”

Fortunately, passengers have alighted from the train when the mishap took place at around 8 p.m. last Tuesday at the last stop of the north-bound travel, Nograles disclosed.

“Unknown to the public, a near deadly disaster took place last Tuesday at MRT 3 North Ave. station but management opted to hush it up,” the Davao City-based lawmaker said.

Records indicated that the Tuesday incident was the first reported derailment case affecting MRT 3 service.

The MRT 3 management halted the evening service of the train after the derailment. It claimed that a system glitch triggered the management decision.

However, Nograles said what happened could be considered a “serious sign that the system is now in a state of serious disrepair” and may be unsafe for the riding public.

Without citing any source for his information, Nograles disclose that the train suffered a “rear static converter failure and drive circuit interlocking and overheard caternary system under voltage,” thus, triggering the derailment.

The track dislocation took place as the train was traversing the north turnback track of the North Ave. station. It took the MRT 3 repair crew four hours to put the train back to its track, disclosed Nograles.

“We were still fortunate the train contained no passengers and the speed was slow. It could have had disastrous consequences if it was derailed while it was still filled with passengers,” said Nograles.