ACCIDENT AT SWANSEA METROLINK

EDIT 17 April 2016: This accident is now a fatality. http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article71885612.html

I missed this in the news on March 6 and it does not appear to be widely reported.  A man was struck by a train and his foot was severed and neck broken after a train ran over him at Swansea.

I keep checking the dates on these stories.  It's not on any other news stations that I could find, and it isn't on Metro's Blog.  In the old days, every news story contained the details of what happened- when, where, etc.  Is this some new development in an old accident case?  Or did this just happen on March 6th? These are the only two stories I could find:

http://www.kmov.com/story/31399856/family-members-of-man-hit-by-metrolink-train-speak-out

http://www.kmov.com/story/31467300/witness-failure-in-alert-system-allowed-man-to-be-run-over-by-metrolink-train 

KMOV video is freezing my computer, so I will try to watch later and see if the video segments have more details. 

JOHN NATIONS NEEDS TO BE FIRED, NOT GIVEN A $75,000 A YEAR RAISE!

On what planet does CEO John Nations think he deserves a $75,000 pay raise?  Now he makes $325,000 dollars a year.

http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Metro-CEO-gets-pay-rise-despite-contract-impasse-rate-hikes-272799461.html

And whether you ride public transportation or not, YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT.

If you are one of the many public transit riders that is already calling Governor Nixon (who appointed Nations) about Michael Brown's murder, why not take another minute to demand he fire Nations?  Call Illinois Governor Quinn, too!

If this outrageous pay raise weren't enough, have a look at how racist Nations treats his mostly African-American drivers at the bargaining table. He is the modern day equivalent of a slave master. 

St. Louis, MO – The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) has called on Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to remove Metro CEO John Nations for his failure to “correct the outrageous conduct of his staff at the bargaining table” in a letter to the Governors.
In the letter, ATU points to evidence of race baiting by members of Metro’s negotiating committee who offered members of ATU Local 788 a recipe for OREO Cookies at the end of a very heated bargaining session. There have been no contract talks since. Metro workers have gone three years without a new contract and six years without a wage increase.
“While the majority of the bus operators at ATU Local 788 are African-American, most mechanics are White, as is the President,” ATU International President wrote in the letter. “The obvious message to us with the recipe was that our union is white on the inside and black on the outside, like the cookie. This transparent race baiting went well beyond the bounds of human decency.”
The incident occurred as Nations engaged in illegal activity by encouraging mechanics to leave the ATU and form their own union. He has publically dismissed the “OREO” incident as a Metro employee sharing his baking hobby.

What a load of crap.  Nations is so firmly entrenched in the St. Louis "Good Ole Boy" Network he think that he answers to no one and can act with impunity!  I hope transit riders will join Metro drivers in challenging this, and in getting him fired!

http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/videos/metro-workers-picket-outside-offices/html_2a08c1df-30ce-56b5-9bbb-3f4733fa665a.html

Read the whole report from the Union here:
http://www.atu.org/media/releases/atu-calls-on-govs-nixon-and-quinn-to-remove-metro-ceo-nations

Other posts about Nations:
http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-metro-is-doing-with-your-money-and.html
http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/03/do-metro-executives-ride-public-transit.html

IDOT HAS THE RIGHT IDEA, BUT TRANSIT RIDERS NEED TO OCCUPY THE RAILWAYS

The Illinois Department of Transportation has the right idea.  We definitely need a high-speed rail line from St. Louis to Chicago.  

http://www.kmov.com/news/talkers/100-million-being-invested-in-St-LouisChicago-rail-project-273409391.html

But WE, THE PEOPLE need to take over the railroads in the same way we need to take over public transit.  Trains-- local commuter, state, and national-- are the future, not more buses, and not more cars and highways!

http://www.eia.gov/countries/index.cfm?view=consumption
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/07/how-parking-spaces-are-eating-our-cities-alive/374413/
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/does-uber-mean-the-end-of-cars--134641160.html
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/

As with public transit, railroads should be communally owned and operated by the public-- Amtrak is government owned-- and only leased to private, for-profit, companies, freight or otherwise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transportation_in_the_United_States

And safety of the public should be the first priority, not down the list after profits and corporate convenience. 

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/who-is-shaping-the-nation-s-railroad-safety-rules/article_87cfc631-3db4-595f-b0f1-a3e02058820f.html 

The first step is to learn more about current railways in your region, and to begin questioning elected and transportation officials on what is being done to develop them.

Railway is not "other transportation", it is our first priority as a forward thinking nation.

http://www.modot.org/othertransportation/rail/documents/MAPrail_passenger_dated11_15_07.pdf