Audit Faults MTA Record-Keeping on Drivers

Record-keeping by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is so lax that the MTA cannot ensure that it meets state and federal regulations designed to limit bus drivers’ time behind the wheel and protect the public against fatigued operators, a state audit has found.

“MTA lacks an adequate system to prevent all violations of federal and state driving and on-duty time restrictions,” state Auditor Elaine M. Howle told the Legislature in a letter accompanying the 45-page audit, which was released quietly last week.

Allan G. Lipsky, the MTA’s chief operating officer, said Monday that the audit’s findings deal “extensively with record-keeping and management,” but that the report did not look at the agency’s actual safety record, which he said was excellent.

In its defense, the MTA on Monday released 1999 records showing that its drivers had fewer collisions for every 100,000 miles of driving than drivers for agencies in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.

State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), who asked for the audit, said the report confirmed fears that surfaced during the prolonged bus drivers strike last year.

The amount of time drivers spend behind the wheel of buses became a bitter issue in the strike. The MTA fought to impose weeks of four 10-hour days on drivers, arguing at times that 12-hour days, including breaks, were within safety ranges. But the MTA won only limited concessions on the issue from the drivers union. MTA bus drivers generally work an eight-hour day, but some work significant overtime that might push against legal limits.

Concerns Over Tracking Work Time

Federal and state regulations prohibit those operators from driving more than 10 hours a shift, or being on duty for more than 15 hours, including rest periods, the audit said.

Among the key points made in the audit:

* The MTA does not have a way to effectively identify all bus drivers who exceed driving or on-duty hour restrictions. As a result, the MTA is unable to prevent violations.

* The transit agency does not adequately keep up with drivers who moonlight at other jobs, additionally increasing the risk to the public.

* The MTA’s accident database is riddled with errors and other problems, “making analysis of accident statistics difficult, if not impossible,” and hampering efforts to determine how many accidents are linked to driver fatigue.

* Even though MTA headquarters receives updated information on traffic citations issued to its drivers, the information often is not passed on to bus division managers, who rely on those operators to disclose their citations.

“The audit only confirmed that the MTA is not doing its due diligence with regard to managing a system of accountability to ensure that drivers are not fatigued,” Alarcon said Monday.

In highlighting the potential danger, the audit cited general estimates by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that drowsy drivers of cars, buses, trucks and other vehicles cause 100,000 traffic accidents each year, in which 1,500 people are killed and 71,000 injured.

The report did not cite examples of driver fatigue contributing to accidents involving MTA drivers.

Need Seen for Better Monitoring System

State auditors said information was not available on the kinds of dangers posed by fatigued MTA drivers who get behind the wheel.

“The overall message of the audit is that the MTA hasn’t put in place all of the tools they need to monitor the driving time, and the on-duty time of their drivers,” said Steven M. Hendrickson, chief deputy state auditor.

“They have a responsibility to do that to make sure they are not putting fatigued drivers behind the wheel.”

Lipsky said the MTA knows “we can do a better job with record-keeping and management.”

The MTA has allocated $8.2 million to improve its record-keeping to ensure that it complies with state and federal regulations, the agency said in a statement.

The statement, which was not signed, said: “The auditor’s report has been very helpful in pointing us in the right direction. In fact, we’re in substantial agreement with many parts of the auditor’s report.”

Lipsky said, “The real question is whether there is any evidence that the MTA’s safety record is a problem. . . . The accident rate statistics show we have a very safe system.”

Alarcon, who chairs a legislative committee looking into the MTA, said he will use the audit as a basis for additional hearings into driver fatigue issues.