A Metrobus struck and killed two Alexandria women last night as they crossed a key intersection in downtown Washington, the third fatal incident involving a Metrobus and pedestrians in eight months....The article rightly pins the blame on Metro.The two women were on Seventh Street NW in the Penn Quarter neighborhood and had the "walk" signal to cross Pennsylvania Avenue when a northbound bus turned left onto the avenue about 6:40 p.m., said Lisa Farbstein, a Metro spokeswoman.
Farbstein said she did not know whether yesterday's weather had anything to do with the accident. It appeared the intersection had been cleared of snow and ice.
But I wonder if some blame should also be assigned to OPM. Perhaps the weather had nothing to do with this tragedy, but I do note that OPM did not close the government yesterday despite the treacherous commuting conditions and the large number of D.C.-area school districts that shut down. This decision forced employees to use earned leave to avoid the weather, thus causing many to add to the amount of commuters out on the road. I just hope that this poor decision by the federal government did not contribute to these deaths: I've learned that both of these women were federal employees, so at the very least both should have been home yesterday.
I worked in an agency where all everyone did was sit at computers and number crunch and write briefs. ALL the records were on file electronically. Yet the agency head refused to allow telecommuting. (There were occasional small meetings, which easily could have been teleconferenced.)
OPM could set up a category of work so that when bad weather is advancing, workers would be on notice to take files home for doing work the next (storm) day. Those so qualified would not be charged a leave day if the government was in session.
Some bosses allow this informally, but it should be accepted policy.
Blair described his decision as "a balancing of the equities." When the government permits unscheduled leave, 40 percent to 50 percent of the area's federal employees take a vacation day, "and that can be extremely disruptive to agency operations," he said.
"The work of government is extremely important," Blair said, adding that "we needed to have more severe weather than what we saw this morning" to justify "sending the message that attendance is optional."
With 350,000 federal employees in the Washington area, Hatch said, a half-day of work translates to more than 1 million hours of productivity in local federal offices. And OPM estimates that shutting down the government for a day in the D.C. area costs $89.9 million.
There is so much hypocrisy here, it's nearly impossible to comment on it all.
In inclement weather situations, the Institut follows OPM's lead and opened its doors two hours late in order to administer the test. The OPM's website and call-in number were updated at around 5:00 A.M. on Wednesday, alerting the public to a two-hour delay in opening federal offices.
The night before, we stayed with my brother in Virginia and then took the Metro into downtown D.C. from the East Falls Church station. Obviously, the weather conditions were daunting, but we saw very few accidents on our drive to the station.
After Steven's test got under way, I walked over to the Russell Senate office building at around noon to say hello to Jim and his staff members and to have lunch with Mac McGarvey, taking 7th down to Pennsylvania to Constitution, then up to Delaware.
The snow plows and those using shovels were doing a good job of getting the streets and sidewalks cleared as quickly as possible. The streets were passable but full of slush and water and it was difficult to determine exactly where crosswalks were located, etc.
However, by the time Steven and I left the downtown area at about 4:00 P.M., the street conditions were much improved and, from what I saw there 2 1/2 hours prior to that terrible accident, there should have been no reason why the two ladies could not have been seen as they crossed the street.
As a mere infrequent visitor to the D. C. area, I was impressed with how quickly and thoroughly the Virginia highways were cleared and how efficient was the Metro system - including several very friendly and patient Metro employees who helped us with directions, tickets, etc. In downtown D.C., I had the same good impressions of those who were working to clear the streets and sidewalks.
As an "outsider", I cannot blame OPM for this tragic accident, but perhaps those of you who live and work in the D. C. area year 'round would have an understandably different view of the situation.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the two women's family and friends.
Steve