While a thorough investigation is still underway on the latest major glitch of the Metro Rail Transit-3 (MRT-3), a human intervention that led to the decoupling of MRT coaches is one of the possibilities the officials are looking at.
鈥淭initignan namin kung paano nangyari kasi baffled kami. Lahat ng railway system may human intervention para maghiwalay kasi mechanical 鈥榶un,鈥� said Roel Jose, a rolling stock specialist of the MRT-3.
(We are looking into how it happened because we鈥檙e really baffled. All the railway system needs human intervention to be separated because it鈥檚 mechanical.)
鈥淟ahat ng train may fail-safe system. 鈥楶ag naghiwalay, mag-preno 鈥榶an. During our initial investigation wala kaming nakitang electrical fault or mechanical fault. 鈥榊ung mechanical na para magkahiwalay 鈥榶ung 聽gear, it pertains to human intervention鈥indi yan maghihiwalay ng sarili nila eh,鈥� he said.
(All the trains have a fail-safe system. If it separates, it will pull the brakes.聽During our initial investigation, we didn鈥檛 see any electrical fault or mechanical fault. In order for the gears to be separated, it pertains to human intervention鈥t can鈥檛 separate by itself.)
Train operations were disrupted on Thursday morning after a link between two MRT coaches got detached along the northbound track of Buendia and Ayala station, forcing passengers to disembark.
This incident was unusual from the almost regular cases of technical glitches suffered by the MRT-3. Two days ago, a passenger nearly lost her arm along the same rail line.
Engr. Ricky Inotorio said that power should have automatically shut down if there was a problem detected between coaches.
鈥淧ero hindi nangyari 鈥榶un (But that didn鈥檛 happen),鈥� he said.
Mike Capati, MRT director for operations said they are investigating all sides before they could establish what really happened.
鈥淟ahat ng anggulo tinitingnan, lahat pinagsisikapan tingnan kung anong nangyari. Hindi pwedeng madaliin,鈥� he said.
(We are looking at all angles, we are all working hard to find out what happened. It can鈥檛 be rushed.) /je