By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 2, 2006

The operator of a runaway Metro train that rolled backward and slammed into another train at the Woodley Park Station in November 2004 was improperly fired and must be rehired, an arbitrator has ruled.

The ruling stated that Metro had not followed proper procedure when it fired Lamont Lewis about a month after his empty train rolled backward for 78 seconds and hit another train in the station, Metro officials said yesterday.

Metro officials stressed that Lewis will not be working in any jobs in which safety is a main concern, such as bus or train operator. He will be a traffic clerk, counting the passengers boarding buses or checking the timing of buses as they arrive at stops, officials said.

Lewis will receive nearly two years of back pay, dating to when he was fired until his reinstatement, which could come as early as this month, Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said. Smith said Lewis will receive the same salary: $52,862.

"Ultimately, the arbitrator ruled in favor of the union," said Richard Froelke, Metro's director of employee and labor relations. "But while the arbitration board ordered him to be reinstated, we were very, very concerned about the safety interest of the riding public, and rest assured, he's coming back in a non-safety-sensitive position."

The case went to arbitration after Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents about 7,000 of the transit agency's 10,000 employees, complained that Lewis was improperly fired. The union said it never agreed to a request by Metro officials to extend the time they had to investigate the accident before taking action against Lewis. Metro officials argued that there was an agreement.

Froelke said the final and binding arbitration was signed last week and received by Metro this week. For privacy reasons, Metro officials said they could not release a copy of the decision.

A spokeswoman for the union declined to comment. Lewis could not be reached.

During a 14-month investigation of the accident by the National Transportation Safety Board, Lewis maintained that the accident was not his fault. But NTSB officials said in March that he failed to brake and that the train he was operating rolled backward because he was very likely asleep.

The crash injured about 20 people, caused about $3.5 million in damage and hobbled the Red Line, the system's busiest, for days. Investigators calculated that the midday crash could have killed at least 79 people if the runaway train had been full.

According to NTSB investigators, Lewis had slept poorly the night before the accident, interrupted by two cellphone calls. He also had worked numerous overtime shifts and was finishing one when the accident occurred.

Metro accused Lewis of "gross violation of basic operations procedure" when it fired him. Lewis started working for Metro in December 1997 and became a train operator in January 2004.