As we all know by now, un unbelievably bad head-on collision occcured in Los Angeles on Sept. 11 between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train. The details are well known. The Salt Lake Tribune ran stories about our commuter rail, the Frontrunner, asking if such a catastrophic accident were possible here. Frontrunner trains have equipment on their engines that will shut down the train if it runs past a red signal making such a collision far more unlikely although not impossible. But everyone ignores light rail. We have no such safety equipment and the potential for a catastrophic accident is much greater. This is especially so given the limited training that light rail operators are given before being licensed. Two very serious incidents have occurred recently, one around Christmas and another just last week, that could have had tragic consequences. Because of the sensitivity of this issue I will not discuss the details publicly but every TRAX personnel knows about them. Both incidents were a direct result of insufficient training. UTA's view that light rail operators are nothing more that bus drivers with a different job title has contributed to this problem. We receive no additional pay for our railroad knowledge and the training is inadequate. But the biggest share of responsibility should go to the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 382. The first and foremost responsibility of a union is to protect the safety of the workers. Local 382, being nothing more than a subsidiary of UTA, has never, and I repeat, never, addressed safety issues at TRAX, or commuter rail for that matter. They have never challenged UTA's deficient training program and have allowed UTA to pay bus drivers' wages to TRAX operators and Frontrunner engineers. (They also allowed UTA to eliminate conductors on Frontrunner, replacing them with "station hosts" who have exactly zero railroad training but are paid more than some of the engineers.) We brought up safety issues and deficiencies in the lawsuit but, of course, former judge Paul Cassell ignored us. This is why we want to exercise our right to choose our own union.