DoTr eyes ‘sabotage’ in latest MRT mishap
AN OFFICIAL of the Department of Transportation (DoTr) has raised the possibility of sabotage behind the latest mishap affecting the Metro Rail Transit or MRT-3 on Thursday, Nov. 16.
A third car of a northbound train that had left Ayala Station was detached at around 9:00 a.m., prompting the unloading of an estimated 200 passengers who walked along the tracks toward Buendia Station.
Another unloading incident was also reported on Quezon Avenue Station around that time, in what was the first regular working day this week following a threeday holiday declared to give way to the ASEAN Summit.
The detached car incident was the second MRT mishap this week, after a woman collapsed and fell between two cars of a running train at Ayala Station on Tuesday. It was reported since that her severed arm has been surgically restored.
‘HUMAN INTERVENTION’
As for Thursday morning’s incident, DoTr Undersecretary for Railways Cesar B. Chavez in a text message to reporters that afternoon suggested that a missing component in the detached Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) #68 could be “part of an effort to sabotage the entire operation.”
Earlier that afternoon, MRT-3 officials held a news conference as aired on ANC to disclose their initial findings that the detached car was caused by “human intervention” and not a “mechanical fault” or “electrical fault.”
Ric Inotorio, transport chief of MRT-3, explained that a detached car would have stopped the entire train and sent a “communication error” between the cars to the driver’s diagnostic panel.
For his part, Manuel Mendoza, head of the MRT-3’s light maintenance section, explained that each car had two couplers, one at the front and one behind. “So ito ay parang kutsara- tinidor, o tinatawag natin male and female, na kinakailangan siya ay magcouple. Pag siya ay nag couple na, automatically, hindi mo ito basta- basta mapaghiwalay. At sa ngayon, yun pa rin ang aming iniisip, kung bakit ito humiwalay.”
( These couplers are like a spoon and fork, or what we call male and female, who have to couple. Once they are coupled, automatically, they cannot just be separated. And that’s what we’re wondering about now, why they were decoupled.)
Rolling stock specialist Ruel Jose, affirming his colleagues, said they were looking into the possibility of “human intervention.”
“So yun lang ang tinitingnan namin na ano ngayon, yung side ng human intervention, kung paano nangyari yun. Kasi nga baffled talaga kami,” Mr. Jose said. (So this is what we’re looking at now, the human intervention side, how it happened. Because we’re really baffled.)
He added: “Hindi yan maghihiwalay ng sarili niya yun eh.” (These cars can’t detach on their own.)
‘WHO HAS THE MOTIVE?’
Mr. Chavez, for his part, said in his text message later that afternoon:
“The Messma Card (Black Box) of the decoupled Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) #68 is missing. This was the report to the MRT management by the technical team lead by Safety Chief Technician Ruel Jose who conducted the initial investigation of this morning’s incident near Ayala station.” — with