peter benjamin says with confidence?i think escalators are fine. >> a statement he makes just hours after meeting with metro general manager. he wanted to know about the 300 page report just released about escalators and elevators on metro. >> how was it interpreted. what did the staff decide about what they needed to do. >> they decided, he says, to pay attention to what the independent companies deemed safety sensitive. >> worker safety issues like how you were protecting the worker from electricution. >> but what about those warnings, about brakes wearing down? he says those problems were labeled merely maintenance and it put them on a need to inspect list. >> what they didn't do was accelerated inspection, until this accident occurred. >> on that day october 30th when the escalator broke, there was overcapacity, too many people on the escalator forcing it to accelerate. the good news is the safety system did kick into gear. the bad news is the brakes broke when it did. >> so now metro is almost finished with inspecti

. >>> 9 news now spoke with the metro transit board chairman, peter benjamin about the safety of them's escalators. six people were injured on october 80th while riding an escalator -- on october 30th while riding an escalator at l'enfant station. benjamin says they must strip the escalators down and rebuild each by hand because they are so old and out of production. >> we don't want any passenger ever to be injured, and safety is a key thing that we all have to adopt as our number one priority, and i think we did do that. >> reporter: benjamin admits that metro probably should have placed the escalator brake warnings on the safety sensitive list. that would have given them a high priority. >>> owners of the college park restaurant that has been a problem for police decided to take action before county officials did. we'll explain when we come back. >>> the nightmare is ending for passengers on board the disabled cruiseship splendor. i'm sandra hughs and i will have that story coming up. >>> a health alert, attention deficit disorder impacts millions. >> i was tested for learning dis

i asked that very question to peter benjamin just minutes ago. here's what he had to say. >> it's not clear to me that any passenger was ever in danger after the first incident occurred. in other words, the issue that happened here was construction above the metro station, which stopped immediately. as soon as it stopped, all of the danger stopped. it was immediately investigated and all of those actions took place that were appropriate, including sealing everything up. >> reporter: now, the other big safety concern discussed at this morning's meeting was metro's ongoing escalator issues. remember the incident on the national mall where an escalator suddenly started speeding up? we've known for some time it was caused by a brake failure. the brakes simply couldn't hold that huge crowd of people. today we learned metro has inspected 566ful 588 and it turns out 50 were found to have similar problems with the braking system. so that means that the same type of acceleration could have happened on any of those 50 escalators. now 40 of the brakes have

peter benjamin told 9news now there is no indication of a specific threat.t metro issued the picture "just to be cautious "and that it was not intended to be released publicly. but the question remains who are they and what were they doing? metro emphasizes the two men are accused of no crime and no wrongdoing. but if you know who they are, authorities would like to know too. would like to know, as we said, who they are and what they were doing. >> i've never heard of be on a look out order like this. is this unusual for metro or do we just never hear about them? >> reporter: good question, derek. we asked that question of the metro board chairman. he says it's the first time he can remember in his experience that this kind of memo was issued. but the ceo says one reason they may not issue these very often is because unlike new york and london they don't have the extensive surveillance that would alert them to possible problems. >> gary nurenberg, thank you, sir. scary stuff. >>> a pro pedophilia book is no longer being sold on amazon after a public outroar.

chairs the metro board and peter benjamin says with confidence a statement he makes hours after meetinghe metro general manager. he wanted to know about the 300- page report released on escalator and elevators. >> how was it interpreted? what did the staff decide they needed to do. >> reporter: he said they decided to pay attention to what the incompany deemed safety sensitive. >> how you are protecting the worker from electrocutions. >> reporter: but what about the brakes wearing down. those problems were labeled merely maintenance and the staff put them on the need to inspect list. >> what they didn't do is an accelerated inspection until the accident occurred. >> reporter: on that day when the escalator broke there was too many people on the escalator forcing it to accelerate. the good news is the safety system did kick in to gear, but the bad news is the brakes broke when it did. >> reporter: now that metro is almost finished with inspecting all 588 escalators he wants to make this point to anyone who feels impatient about escalator repairs. >> these are very old escalators. since n

. >> we just spoke with peter benjamin who says he disagrees with the mattress spokespersons stance, that the system cannot wait for everyone who is trying to board. you do not close the doors on someone. especially mother with her baby. >> we have -- >>> we have breaking news now in montgomery county. an accident involving a car and a metrobus, officials tell us that nine people were hurt and none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening. the c eight wrote bus was unloading passengers when it was rebranded. >>> they are protesting staff shortages. a strike will last from 7:00 a.m. next wednesday until 7:00 a.m. thursday. the union will let say how many are expected to strike. it is veterans day. today, vice-president joe biden was at the tomb of the unknown. he gave thank you to the 23 million surviving veterans and their families for their sacrifice and dedication. we have more on this matter. >> there were so many people who spent veterans day here walking through arlington national cemetery, at the iwo jima and other memorials. some of them had private remembrances. others

joining us now is peter benjamin, chairman of the metro board and david albert, the d.c.hair of metro riders advisory council. mr. benjamin, i know this was a preliminary report when it first came out, but it came out before the l'enfant plaza and chinatown incident. you had red flags. did you do enough to protect the riders before that incident happened? >> well, what happened at the time was that the staff that reviewed the report reviewed it in the context that the experts that wrote it had broken up the categories. there were categories of critical sensitive safety items and there were areas that were labeled maintenance. >> and this wasn't critical? it was a maintenance issue? >> this one was labeled as a maintenance issue. so what they did is as part of the ongoing inspections that occur for the escalators they made sure that this was highlighted and the issue of the brakes was, in fact, made part of the ongoing inspection process. >> i think a lot of us would shudder to think if somebody seriously got injured the kind of loss you might face regarding that. we'll mo

>> welk you know, actually last night peter benjamin, who's metro's chairman of the board, he said in his experience he can in the remember anything like this happening. so it is certainly unusual and rare but keep in mind the media, metro, police over the past three weeks since the fbi arrested the virginia man for plotting to bomb metro stations. ever since then they have been urging metro riders to be on the lookout and be more cautious and if they see anything suspicious to relay that information to police. so that may certainly have something to do with this, as well. back to you. >> thank you for the update. while you slept, the vietnam veteran actually helped prevent a tragedy near he 14th street bridge. >> veterans and family members were on a tour bus that caught fire on 395. over passengers say one of the men near the back of the bus noticed smoke and told everyone to get out of the bus. everyone is fine and the vets on the bus, they were members of the light infantry brigade that served in vietnam. they were in the district to visit the memorial wall on veteran's day. >>> i

actually yesterday we spoke to the chairman hoff the board peter benjamin and he said he cannot remember a lookout like this being issued since he's been on board at metro, but keep in mind, metro, police, the media, they have been urging all metro riders to be especially on the lookout ever since the arrest was made three weeks ago for the man who was allegedly accused of trying to bomb four metro stations in arlington. that encouragement for metro riders to be on the lookout for anything suspicious, that may have something to do with this, as well. >> thank you for clearing that up. the 14th street bridge is back to normal this morning. that wasn't the case last night, though. this is what it looked like on southbound 395 after a tour bus caught fire. it was carrying vietnam war veterans here for a reunion. one of the vets noticed the fire on the back of the bus. he alerted the driver. everyone was able to get out safely. >>> while you slept, president obama left south korea for the next stop on his asia tour. >> he touched down in tokyo a few minutes ago. a few hours ago he wrapped up