The Toronto Transit Commission’s largest union is calling for the removal of CEO Rick Leary, alleging the transit system covered-up a near miss collision involving two subway cars more than a year ago.
Posted Sep 16, 2021, 06:57AM EDT
The Toronto Transit Commission’s largest union is calling for the removal of CEO Rick Leary, alleging the transit system covered-up a near miss collision involving two subway cars more than a year ago.
The incident occurred in June last year when two subway trains almost collided near Osgoode Station. A train had been given the go-ahead to move onto the main track, but a guard on the train spotted an oncoming northbound train and made a frantic radio call in time to stop.
ATU Local 113 president Carlos Santos says an independent report on what happened has been published, but Leary redacted critical information.
“This happened over a year ago, and we only got word of this in May or June when we got it as evidence,” Santos said. “The disaster was averted at the last second by an alert Subway Guard and Operator.”
Santos confirms the union only found out about the near-miss when it came up as evidence in a legal fight over the TTC’s plans to move to a “one-person train operation” system.
He alleges TTC management did not report the incident to anyone.
A report, titled “Osgoode Interlocking Incident Report” was tabled at its July 7 board meeting. It says on June 12, 2020, “there was an operational incident near Osgoode Station. This report provides the initial findings from the investigation into the incident.”
However, it was recommended that the TTC Board keep the findings confidential “until such time as the litigation matters have concluded.”
“Someone is responsible for that cover-up attempt,” says Santos. “That someone could only be the CEO. Who else would have the authority to keep such a major incident under wraps?”
“This is not the first time Leary has failed a public accountability test. Frankly, it is amazing what was missed by the Commission when they hired him to run North America’s third-largest transit system.”
He says the union was denied a chance to speak at Wednesday’s board meeting, so now they’re calling for Leary to get the boot.
A media rep for the TTC tells 680 NEWS Leary will stay in his job as CEO.
“We’re not going to dignify the union’s statement with a response except to say that the evidence shows the facts of how this incident occurred,” TTC Senior Communications Specialist Stuart Green said on Wednesday.
“Mr. Leary looks forward to continuing to serve as the TTC’s CEO and working with the 16,000 incredible employees of this organization to safely provide our customers with the best service possible.”
Councillor Jaye Robinson, the chair of the TTC, also reconfirmed her support for Leary.
“I fully support Rick Leary as he continues to lead the TTC through one of the most challenging periods in our history,” she said in a statement. “A detailed presentation on the June 2020 incident was presented to the Board in-camera and subsequently to the public.”
