Safety DOES Come First, OC Transpo: THE VOTER
All of these recent bus maintenance serious safety problems are doubly scary since these revelations only came to light as a result of someone calling the city fraud-and-waste tip-line to report their concerns.
If that hadn’t happened, who knows how long this would have continued and with what consequences. We also don’t know how long this had been going on for before it was reported.
OC Transpo has accepted all the recommendations and has already implemented some of them. This without any apparent notable dissent or attempt to explain away how or why the transgressions came about. Not even a feeble effort at standing up for their practices which is not the usual response to an AG report.
We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to whoever reported this. It would have been only a matter of time before there would have been a serious incident as a result of uninspected repairs to a bus or buses.
I would, however, like to see a couple of further steps. First, any work done on a vehicle that was not properly inspected and signed off on should immediately be inspected by a third party to ensure safety and proper completion of the job, Second, any bus failures over the last couple of years should be investigated to see if those vehicles had previously had repairs done that could potentially have led to the later failure. It’s pure luck that no serious issues appear to have come from these practices but let’s not push that luck any further by assuming that any negative consequences that haven’t happened yet aren’t going to happen.
The safety protocols are in place so that we don’t have to rely on fairies to protect us from danger. I would suggest that the transit fairies are already overworked and need all the help they can get.
The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.
For You:
More Transpo Horror Stories From AG’s Report
Transit System Gruesomely Slow: PATTON
Potential Safety Risks In Bus Maintenance: AG
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Thanks for this. In the budget documents for the eBus they showed the reliability stats for their buses and their latest bus and the eBus had decent reliability, but the other 2 were dismal, including the double decker fleet.
For safety related maintenance in the real world they have check-offs which have to be signed off and presented to management or the quality group. There are two types of quality checks, quality assurance and quality control, they are separate. One physically checks the work, maybe not all the work, a sampling of trouble areas or critical safety areas based on a quality analysis and plan. The Quality Control ensures the paperwork is done correctly and holds onto the paperwork signed by the responsible maintainer and tracks non-conforming work, warranty work and eventual resolution. It’s a condition of employment for those certifying that the work is done correctly that they have actually done their job. Obviously without a system that tracks accountability, there is none.
I have always been intrigued by organizations that dispute the findings of an internal audit. Defending what is in effect the indefensible is counter productive, a waste of resources that should be directed at improving internal processes. So kudos to OC Transpo for accepting the AG’s report and taking corrective steps.