we are anxiously waiting for wmata's report. since 1982 the ntsb has investigated 13 accidents involving wmata. more than half have occurred since 2006. our lafonte plaza investigation has illustrated again that rail transit accidents continue to cause injuries and death and that more effective oversight of rail transit is necessary. that is why we included improved rail transit safety oversight in our most-wanted list of improvements. inadequate safety oversight can result in many hazards that are allowed to develop and system and constitute systemic hazards. the physical hazard that led to the lafonte plaza station accident is present system-wide. that is where the ntsb issued urgent safety recommendations to the secretary of transportation in january 2016 urging that wmata be constituted a commuter authority so that the federal railroad authority can exercise oversight. it was acknowledged that tri-state oversight committee, or t.o.c., lacked the level of oversight needed to ensure safety at wmata. however, he disagreed with

we are anxiously waiting for wmata's report. since 1982 the ntsb has investigated 13 accidents involving wmata. more than half have occurred since 2006. our l'enfant plaza investigation has illustrated again that rail transit accidents continue to cause injuries and death and that more effective oversight of rail transit is necessary. that is why we included improved rail transit safety oversight in our most-wanted list of improvements. inadequate safety oversight can result in many hazards that are allowed to develop and system and constitute systemic hazards. the physical hazard that led to the l'enfant plaza station accident is present system-wide. that is where the ntsb issued urgent safety recommendations to the secretary of transportation in january 2016 urging that wmata be constituted a commuter authority so that the federal railroad authority can exercise oversight. it was acknowledged that tri-state oversight committee, or t.o.c., lacked the level of oversight needed to ensure safety at wmata. however, he disagreed wit

wmata, 44%. nobody gives more money for capital improvements, nobody has more money available than you all have available. so, again, please don't come here -- there's lots of money available. what we don't have -- we have money available. we don't have leadership. we don't have management. and these people need to step up to the plate. virginia needs to step up to the plate, maryland needs to step up to the plate, and the district with that huge surplus now needs to step up to the plate. you sure as heck ain't going to get it out of my folks and the improvements can be maet. so no other system in the country has the kind of resources into it. and if you want to divide, don't divide by three. let's divide by four and have everybody step up to pay for it. so i'm not making -- i'm not here to make up for bad management. i'm not here to make up for a poor safety record. i'm not here to make up for a lack of action, and i'm -- and you -- who was it -- was it the new general manager, when i saw the li

anxiously waiting for wmata's report. hase 1982 the ntsb investigated 13 accidents involving wmata.e than half have occurred 2006. our lafonte plaza investigation railllustrated again that transit accidents continue to cause injuries and death and oft more effective oversight rail transit is necessary. improvedhy we included rail transit safety oversight in our most-wanted list of improvements. inadequate safety oversight can many hazards that are allowed to develop and system hazards.itute systemic the physical hazard that led to the lafonte plaza station system-wide.resent that is where the ntsb issued urgent safety recommendations to the secretary of transportation january 2016 urging that wmata be constituted a commuter authority so that the federal exerciseauthority can oversight. it was acknowledged that committee lacked the level of oversight needed to ensure safety at wmata. however, he disagreed with our recommendation to transfer oversight of wmata to the f.r.a. and instead determined that the f.t.a., the federal administration, would begin increased oversight and directly

now, ddot basically contracts cc with wmata and then will mat wl at a contracts with anothertrr privateompany called first transit and they are responsible, first transitsi fir responsible for running thefor h service and maintaining the fleet. flee here's the big problem, the bige specifics here are with thes problems with runninghe and maintaining that fleet.tain there were an average of 22 o defects per bus, much higher rate than other fleets that are operated by first transit, a 40 of the 42 buses inspectorct had what they called critical safety defects, we're talkingal about things like fire extinguishers, headlights,ea tire treads, emergency windows e brakes and steering.brak now at the conclusion of the the audit the auditor said the sd te vast majority of the defects dec were a result of neglected nle maintenance and said thatand saa wmata has not provided provi sufficient oversight when itntig can comes to these safetyafet defects and maintaining theseni buses in a good condition.onti now, we should let youno hearing today and the union u that represents d.c. d circulator drive

are run byeetr first transit.nsit first transit is the privatete operator that is contracted bytr wmatao run the circulatorr service.service. 40 of the 42 buses2 bu inspectorred had criticalriti safety defects.efects. things like fire extinguishers headlights tire treads,li emergency windows that don't work, brakes and steeringing problems. now, the can conclusion of the audit was that most of the defects were the result oft o neglected maintenance andtemain pointed the finger at wmatafinga saying it has not provided provi sufficient oversight of its o contractor first transit.st tras so, that is this ddot hearingeai today and i think the question t a lot of us had guys is thats it this audit was done in august of 2015. it's almost a year later. l you would think that most of tht those issues especially the critical ones would have beenne taken care of. but the union that represents the drivers for the circulator said they did their own sort of i march and found that some off these problems remain. rem they're still not up to speed as far as the maintenance that they would like to see s

passengers, feds, wmata al trying to make sure it's a safer ride.o many people defend on tpend t >> molette green like this rosslyn. thank you. >>> police are searching for the person who killed a transgender woman in a hotel in rockville. investigators say the 22-year-old guide of trauma to her upper body. saturday at the red roof inn this was on shady grove road. police believe she may have been working as a prostitute. they want to hear from anyone who may know something about her death. >>> 6:33. police are investigating a deadly crash, police say 24-year-old ashley murphy died after a car she was traveling in left the road and struck a poll. this happened at the intersection of suitland road and meadow view drive in the suit land silver hill area on saturday around 2:00 a.m. the driver of the car is seriously hurt and remains in the hospital. police are trying to figure out why the driver lost control. >>> president obama is traveling today. he is going to the to sad dsaudi arabia. the president will meet with the gulf cooperation council which

they will start to be part of wmata metro board starting in may. reporting live, brianne carter, abc7 news. leon: thank you. a somber farewell for the fairfax county firefighter nicole mittendorff. viewing and a funeral took place in the rain a week after her body was found in the shenandoah national park. she had been missing for a week. the medical examiner says she underway into concerns that she was cyber bullied. a series of negative angry posts about mittendorff have been found online. now we are expecting an update on the case to come tomorrow. abc7 will be there. maureen: still ahead at 6:00 -- a year after the baltimore riots an appeal from the federal investigators. a big push to close open cases of arson like this one that destroyed a senior center. leon: a local county sees four people die after being hit with tasers. protocol violated and the drastic steps that police are taking to protect lives. alison: the former house speaker calls a presidential candidate a miserable s.o.b. but he wasn't so polite about it. why that candidate insis

i had the opportunity to chair transportation committee and we looked at the problems with wmata andashington metro during that tenure. on the 12th of january, 2015, last year, we had a horrible incident, accident, in which an individual lost their life in the metro system. i called a hearing february 13 of 2015. that was our first o.g.r. hearing to review what had taken place. we personally visited ntsb. we looked at -- we looked at the problem that was identified. we tried to find out what was going wrong at that point, what occurred -- what made that incident occur. and then seek remediation. we did a second hearing and i remind members, july 21, 2015, and i'm very concerned that after talking with mr. hart -- we'll hear from him in a while, from ntsb -- that some of his recommendations he told me were passed on from the fatal incident. in june, i'm not sure if they were taken care of. we had the latest incident. we had a shutdown of the system, for, what, 29 hours, march 16, last month. i gave enough time for folks to prepare for this hearing. i wanted to do something immediate.

wellness who has been working with the viewer wmata. >> we have paid $845 million to metro and metro brings us the request for payment. norton: when can they get off of these restrictions that are putting the more heavily into debt? in the coming months we will make sure that metro is doing the financial activities that we requested in our oversight review. during 2016 it is possible that metro will fulfill their tyrants that it can move off the restricted drawdowns but it will be up to metro. norton: i'm going to ask you to get me within 30 days a new proposed date when it will no longer have to be on these kinds of restrictions. i want only to say to my good the idea ofvans creating a dedicated funding source. this has become a mantra. put a proposal on the table. anythinggoing to do about dedicated funding until somebody put something on the table for others to react to. i think that would move the ball forward. i thank you very much. >> we have exhausted the republicans on our side. >> i did know was that easy to exhaust the republicans. ms. comstock: i have heard some of the bac

a dc counsel heefrg today, jack evans at councilman and wmata board member asked why they seemed so panicky especially when you consider the fact that metro has had so much experience in dealing with these types of fires. the gm spoke to us afterwards and he said he aware of these complaints but he pointed out everyone evacuated safely. he investigated to see whether or not proper procedures were followed. >> clearly for the people on the train, it's, you know, very stressful. i get it. for sure. but we have to -- we have to basically get back people in a safe area as quickly as possible. but you can't start making decisions without knowing what you're making them on. >> reporter: passengers say the final indignity was this. once they finally did get off those trains, they were met with a bottle neck of people a station door. why? well it turns out even though the trains had stopped, the turn styles had not. the passengers had to take out their fare cards and pay to get out of this station. we're live in friendship heights tonight, tom fitzgerald, fox 5 local news. >> also in the district,

covered and emergency signage and violation of the wmata roadway worker program designed to keep track workers safe. the f.t.a. says the train operators did not follow speed restrictions when approaching the work crews. the safety problems were discovered in the f.t.a. three-part safety blitz announced days after the rail system was shut down for 29 hours. >> then they have to shut it down to find the problem, ongoing with the track. i don't understand why. brianne: metro is now told to conduct immediate safety briefings with employees. in response, metro says all safety critical items are getting priority attention adding in a statement, "the employee safety briefings will be conducted this week and the items that require track outages are incorporated incorpo the general manager's track pl 13,000 employees to really step up to the plate. and start operating the system the way it should be done. brianne: general manager paul wiedefeld is expected to outline the plan in the coming days or weeks. next month a new chief safety officer will join the authority as well. as for this letter f

and the generalen maintenance of the metro is att issue which falls under wmata. >> right. >> hopefullyy'll get somey's answers. >> topic of discussion for suren >> right. also happening today, friendsodr and family will say finalin goodbyes to d.c. teenager killel over easter weekend 15-year-oldd devonne thai washington w w his family when he was shot and killed at deanwood metro station.atio he was a freshman at largo highh school.ho washington's funeral will beon'r held at first baptist church ofh glenn arden.rd services begin at 11 a.m. >>> also happening today, deadline day for a bunch of buno prince george's county clubs. c to either change how they're t doing business or shut downt altogether. many of those adult clubs are ca accused of tracking under aged e girls as strippers.rs fox5's annie yu joining us live with more on this story. annie? >> reporter: hey, good morningey to all of you. you know, so many people pleasee by the county taking this actioi and all of this following anngn investigation that we did last l year looking into these these allegations of sex traffickingng

o was there improper maintenance and lack of maintenance, of recordkeeping by first transit, also wmata and ddot d hadn't done a very good job ofjf maintaining oversight.veight. that hans to be a oversight bovr hearing today, 11 o'clock thisch morning city council chambers and at that hearing the that transit union will alsols present its findings saying really that operator first transit is basically taking takn short cuts in order to savee money. mone the union is also asking foror higher wages.higher w back to you guys.ck t >> mel, i know earlier youknow r were making a comment that youha were still trying to figure t out exaryctly who rides the the circulator buses. buses of the ones that you've seen this morning, and i know it'sg,' still early, does it look like there's quite a few people one them oa r no? >> reporter: you know, theyw,he have regular ridership butsh b i've never seen any of these oft buses fully packed.ac certainly not as popular ast asr metro buses. they really are intended justent to be sort of an internal astera they call it the circulator, cia just meant to be

in response, ddot issued a statement today saying it's working with wmata to ensure all the vehicles in service meet the industry safety standards and those in need of repair are immediately pulled off the street as evidence by ddot decision to order independent audit of the vehicles. safety is the highest priority. reporting outside union station, mike carter-conneen, abc7 news. michelle: all right, mike. thank you. cloudy and breezy this afternoon. but still warm outside. doug: below 80's around the area. peeks of sunshine. a little sunshine getting through. check this out. 83 degrees. show you the map to tell you the weather story on tuesday. this is the last day. at the summer levels. we will get closer to the seasonal averages in the next few days. 4:00 number, 83 at fredericksburg and washington. cooler north, cool front coming through the area. a weak front shifting the winds. allowing slightly cooler air in through the east. still be comfortable outside through 7:00 or 8:00. then it will turn cooler overnight. we are expecting the overnight lows between 40 and 50 degrees with

the vast majority of the defects were the result of neglected maintenance and saidin wmata anted ddotad not done ad very good job of properroper oversight of his contractor conr first transit but it did say dis that the buses are are a structurally sound and there'shs no reason why any of them of t should have to be retired orave replaced early as long as theynt get their maintenance in check but certainly causing a lot ofst concern especially when youes hear that some of these,pe again, safety defect, those a rated safety defects onesects where buses should not haveot been operating. opeti ddot is going to be holding an oversight hearing today to tday discuss this issue and we hethis do know that the union that re says that even though thatev tho audit was conducted a year y ago, the problems haven'tav gotten any better.etter. the union says it's conducted ct its own informal audit inudit i march and found that theret ther were still many, many busesany b with critical safety defectsety that were allowed to be on theot roads when they should noty shol have been. so, the union will be

. >> i ask what's wmata's unlick quit dated balance in open o grants coming from the federali government as of the 18th of march. it's $783 million.3 llio it's not like they don't have the money.on last year in 2015 they had $4 they had the money available.le what they had is incompetence.om >> reporter: now, virginia representative jerry conleyy said that that and some reallyt somewhat of a myth saying thatyi that money from congress isess set aside to pay for those new 7,000 series rail cars. those are capitolcapito improvements. that is not money for operations or maintenance ornc those sorts of things.soof t also, metro management metemenme privately with the local congressional delegations froml d.c., maryland and virginia.de they also wantednd to address ad some of their concerns aboutr ce safety on metro.tro. general manager paul wiedefeld e did tell a direct question qst from senator barbara mikulskisk did dell her that there are currently uniformed policey officersun and ununiformed ununi police officers currently riding the rails. t live at l'enfant mraz is thatrat correct i'm

. >> wmata chairman jack evansac e talking about the need for funding, these incidents iiden underscorehe need for fundingo and frankly saying what more cae they do if they don't get the g money they can't fix these had d bitch tal problems we'll keepe' seeing these.ng tse. the only thing do you care justd say help us feds. f let's see.. >> they do.>> they do. the back and forth is frustrat frustrating. >> a lot of pressure on the newe general manager to get everybody to work together.togher >> meanwhile i'm not ridingle i metro. metr >> lot of people are not. n >> i'm not letting my familyyaml ride metro.rideetro >> you take your life into youru own hands literal when you do yo this it's not good way to feel t when this is your transportatioo system and major city and facedd with day in, day >> we want you to know that wewt have invited metro gm paul we'd field on fox5 morning news for the latest several weeks. we have been saving this seat s just for him so he can explain p to you what's being done toon t address the safety problems.roem what repairs are being plannedna that could imp