1 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 2 CIVIL DIVISION 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x 4 CLINT E. HEFLIN, ORIGINAL 5 Plaintiff, 6 VB. CA No. 04245-95 Calendar 10 7 NATIONAL RAILROAD Judge Milliken PASSENGER CORPORATION, 8 Defendant. 9 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x 10 Washington, D. C. 11 Monday, March 11, 1996 12 Deposition of 13 ANTHONY FULLER 14 a witneBB, called for examination by counsel for the 15 plaintiff, pursuant to notice, at the Amtrak Claims 16 Office, 900 Second Street, N.E., Washington, D. C., 17 beginning at 12:43 p.m., before Karen Hinnenkamp, RMR, 18 a Notary Public in and for the District of Columbia, 19 when were present: E X H I B I T S 2 3 Marked for Identification and Retained: Page 4 5 Plaintiff'B Exhibit No. 1 14 Photo - Amfleet II Vestibule 6 Plaintiff'B Exhibit No. 2 22 7 Handwritten Memos - Utley to Fuller, etc. One Page 8 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 3 27 9 Amtrak Inveotigation Committee Report Four Pages 10 Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 4 27 11 Hand Drawings, A and B 4 1 Thereupon, 2 ANTHONY FULLER 3 a witness, was called for examination by counsel for 4 the plaintiff and, after having been first duly sworn 5 by the Notary, was examined and testified as fOllOWB: 6 EXAMINATION BY COUNSEL FOR THE PLAINTIFF 7 BY MR. SHAPIRO: 8 Q Good afternoon. Could you please state 9 your full name, sir? 10 A Anthony Levi Fuller. 11 Q What is your home address, Mr. Fuller? 12 A 14220 Oak Point Drive, that'B in Laurel, 13 Maryland, 20707. 14 Q Are you employed with National Railroad 15 Passenger Corporation, which we will call Amtrak? 16 A YeB. 17 Q How long have you been with Amtrak? 18 A Coming up on BiX years. 19 Q What is your title with the company? 20 A Trainmaster. 21 Q What is your age, air? 22 A Thirty. 5 1 Q Can you tell me the general dutieb Of YOUR 2 present position? 3 A In my present position I supervise train 4 and engine crews in the Washington terminal area, 5 train dispatchers, yardmasters and crew dispatchers. 6 Q SO it'B a Bupervisory position, thib 7 trainmaster position. 8 A Yes. 9 Q Do you know Clint Heflin, the plaintiff in 10 this case that we are here on this deposition on? 11 A YeB, I do. 12 Q How long have you known him? Generally. 13 A I would say about four years. 14 Q You knew him before 1992 then, a little 15 before June of 1992? 16 A I came in April '92. 17 Q Where do you report for duty formally? 18 A I report over in what'B called Track 7, 19 Butler Building. 20 Q In Washington, D.C. here? 21 A Yes. 22 Q Do you know what type of duties Clint 6 1 Heflin has with Amtrak? 2 A Yes. 3 Q He is a conductor with the railroad? 4 A Yes. 5 Q On June 14th, 1992 he reported an injury 6 that arose out of Quantico. When did you first become 7 familiar with the fact that he claimed that he had 8 been hurt? 9 A I don't really recall the incident at that 10 time. 11 Q On June 14th of '92 I believe you did an 12 inbpection of a train car which I believe is train car 13 25047 somewhere I guess in Amtrak's yard here in 14 WaBhington; is that true? is A I don't recall doing an inspection, but the 16 train that is in question arrived in the station, so 17 it would be in the station area. 18 Q Okay. What do you call the different areas 19 up here? I mean I know there is Union Station and 20 there is the yard. How do you refer to them? 21 A The difference between them is the station 22 is the arriving point for all trains. Our yard area 7 1 iB where we store our trains. 2 Q Thank you. There are some records which I 3 will refer to in a minute that you were asked to look 4 at car 25047 on the 14th of June of '92. What I have 5 been curious about is do you recall whether anyone 6 ever told you when you did the inspection that night 7 there was an injury to someone reported on that car or 8 whether it waB just a requebt to do an inspection? 9 A I don't really recall. 10 Q So it may have been that they hadn't told 11 you there was an injury. They just said to inspect 12 the coach car. 13 A I'm sorry, I don't recall. 14 Q Okay. At that time in June you were 15 working as a trainmaster. What would you do on a 16 typical evening such as the 14th of June as far as 17 your duties? Did you have a shift, first of all, that 18 you worked? 19 A YeB. 20 Q What was that? From what time to what 21 time? 22 A The Bhift I normally worked was 3:00 p.m. 8 1 until 11:00 p.m. 2 Q What typeb of things would you do generally 3 here in Washington? 4 A BaBically keeping track of all the trains, 5 making sure they are getting made up, watching the 6 employees in the Washington Btation area, greeting the 7 crews as they arrived on trainb. 8 Q Would you from time to time walk through 9 the trains themselves? 10 A Sometimes, yes. 11 Q So essentially you have to get the consist 12 or all the cars together for the variOUB completed 13 trains that are going to depart from Washington? 14 A Yes. 15 Q Do you know Bruce Thompson? I think he was 16 an aBBiBtant conductor at that time. 17 A I don't recall Mr. Thompson. 18 Q Do you know Diane Bowie? 19 A I don't recall Diane Bowie. 20 Q As of 192 did you know Mr. McArthur, J.J. 21 McArthur? 22 A Yes. 9 1 Q Was he working out of the Washington area 2 here also at that time? 3 A Yes. 4 Q How did his position contrast with yours? 5 What POBition did he have at that time? 6 A He had a transportation manager's position 7 at the time. 8 Q Is that Bomeone who is technically above 9 your position in supervioory hierarchy or equal or 10 just a different area? 11 A The position he had at the time was higher 12 than the position I have. 13 Q All right. Did you work out of the same 14 office with him then? 15 A We worked out of the same area. 16 Q Do you have an office in a little building 17 here Bomewhere in the yard? 18 A I have an office over in what we call 19 Track 7. It's a little building located beside the 20 tracks. 21 Q Was Mr. McArthur's office over there also? 22 A At the time we had offices over here in the 1 0 1 REA building. 2 Q In what? 3 A The REA building. The building we are in 4 right now. Offices were on the opposite side over 5 there. 6 Q Have you had other positions with Amtrak 7 before you became a trainmaster? 8 A No. I have always been a trainmaster. 9 Q Are you generally familiar with the 10 different kinds of passenger coach cars that Amtrak 11 uses in its trains? 12 A Yes. 13 Q Are you familiar with the Amfleet coach 14 cars? 15 A YeB. 16 Q How many vestibule areab does the Amfleet 17 II coach car have? 18 A One vestibule. 19 Q Define what a vestibule is, to make sure 1 20 am talking about the same thing you are. 21 A A vestibule is an area right outside of the 22 area where the passengers sit. It has doors on both 1 sides. 2 Q All right. Also generally at least for 3 these Amfleet cars there are Bteps or stairs leading 4 down to the ground from the vebtibule area? 5 A YeB. 6 Q On thib type of Amfleet car how many stairs 7 or steps are there on that vestibule area? 8 A There would be two, one on each side. 9 Q So there is not a vestibule at the other 10 end of those coach cars. 11 A That's correct. 12 Q Is there a trap door on each set of those 13 steps that covers the steps so someone can walk or sit 14 over them at times while the train is moving? 15 A No, you can't sit in the vebtibule area. 16 That's only for allowing PaBBengers to get on and off 17 the equipment. 18 Q Is there a trap door, though, that closes 19 down over the steps in the vestibule area on the 20 Amfleet coaches? 21 A Yes. 22 Q I had looked at one of the photographs. I 1 2 1 saw there was a little stool. I didn't know what the 2 purpOBe of that was. 3 A That's called a stepping stool. They use 4 that to put down at the bottom of what we call a 5 platform, which is where passengers walk to get on a 6 train. 7 Q I see. SO it'B not for anyone to sit above a the trap door. It's just for when they get down on 9 the platform. 10 A Yes. 11 Q All right, thank you. Let me aBk you some 12 quebtions about the way the trap door that people have 13 referred to works on that type of coach car. 14 A Okay. 15 Q How does a worker raise the trap door, 16 first of all, to allow persons to enter or exit the 17 car? 18 A There is a little latch, like it's a little 19 stem. The employee is supposed to step their foot on 20 it and that raiBeB the trap door a little bit. There 21 is handleb on the trap doorb so the employee can slide 22 their hand in and pull it up. Once they do that, 1 3 1 there is a latch up against in the vestibule area that 2 will latch the trap door that will prevent it from 3 coming down as people get off the train. There is 4 also handles on the trap door to allow people to grab 5 onto as they get off. 6 Q What allows the trap door to pop up a 7 little bit once it iB unlatched? Is there sort of 8 like ashock absorber or something like that that 9 pushes it a little bit? 10 A Underneath, yeah. 11 Q It will push the door a little bit up to 12 help the person lift it? 13 A YeB. 14 Q Let me Bhow you this and ask if this lookb 15 to be similar to a type of trap door and vestibule 16 area you were referring to for an Amfleet coach car. 17 A Yes. 18 MR. SHAPIRO: I just note that I'm showing 19 the witneBB a colored photocopy of a photograph. We 20 will go ahead and mark this as Exhibit 1. 21 (The document referred to was 22 marked Plaintiff's Exhibit 14 1 No. 1 for identification.) 2 BY MR. SHAPIRO: 3 Q On the underside of the trap door in these 4 types of coaches it looks like there are a couple of 5 handrails. Is that the way they normally are set up? 6 A Yes. 7 Q What iB the purpose of the handrail on the 8 bottom side of the trap door? 9 A The purpose of these handrails iB to allow 10 passengers to have Bomething to hold onto as they get 11 off the train. 12 Q What holds the trap door up so when they 13 are holding the handrail it won't jUBt PUll? 14 A There iB a latch right here that whenever 15 you pull the trap door up it snaps in place. It's a 16 little spring-loaded latch. 17 Q Okay. If that latch that holds up the trap 18 door isn't working properly to hold the trap door, 19 what will happen if someone pulls on the handle from 20 the underside? 21 A What do you mean? 22 Q In other words, if the latch is loose and 1 5 1 not holding the door up properly, if someone pulls on 2 the underside of the trap door what can happen? 3 MR. SPACEK: Object to the form. You can 4 answer that. 5 THE WITNESS: If it's not holding the trap 6 door up against the wall, it would allow it to come 7 back down if someone were to grab it. 8 BY MR. SHAPIRO: 9 Q I don't have a picture showing it flat, but 10 I take it when it comes down it then lays and covers 11 up the BtepS BO it createb a flat surface above the 12 trap door? 13 A Yes. 14 Q Let me Bhow you this document here and ask 15 you if you have seen at leabt the top portion of this 16 document before and can identify it, Mr. Fuller. 17 A I don't recall this document. 18 Q Might you have seen it back in June of 192 19 and just not remember? 20 A I don't recall. 21 Q Well, did the attorney for Amtrak show it 22 to you more recently and ask you if you saw it? I I ounr lo qqvl aqq paqvp s,4T 'Oulam BTM4 uI 0 zz -892L v TZ Isaeo UTV24 oz UO SOT4np 2Tvdai pup uoTqoadgUT Op A9q4 OU 6T -uvmeaoj avo aqq qqtm ST aqs v OT '829q BNTT BXOOT 4T II LI UPMO20a SAPS 4I zaoqoadaut uv oqs svm oS 13 9T -887, v ST ZPP02TTva 9q4 q4Tm TTTIs Oqg SI 0 VT -TIVOOZ q,uop I v CT ZZ6, 10 allUf UT AqToedvo UOT439dgUT Z'E gO 4208 allXOG UT 3[20M A914LI OOTH PTU IT -papunvs v ol eampu 4gaTj 6 9q4 OT qVqf4 ',kgl4fl BOTH 'AZ200 Ul,j 'AV40 'F9T4n BSTH ST 4Vql v L lAOT4n 'zW 9 lamieu 48JT; sTq MOU5[ q,uop I "aN seoa 9 -4 Iq f) T -9 laaojaq 4T bUTaOS aOAa ;O UOT4091TOO92 AUR SAVQ q,uptp qonc noA puV -Ae5[0 z -88A 'ARPO4 4T 14ps I v 9T 1 7 1 '92, it looks like it has her signature. Do you 2 recognize her handwriting at all? Have you seen it 3 much? 4 A No. 5 Q She says something about "Train 90 was 6 inspected, car 25047, for defective trap door, webt 7 side. No defects were found by conductor or Car 8 Foreman Barnes, Utley.', Nothing about reading thOBe 9 words refreshes anything in your mind about any 10 inspection on that day of that car? 11 A No. 12 Q Is this a pretty common thing for you to 13 have cars inspected and always, you know -- 14 A Well, every train has to be inspected when 15 it gets to what we call a major terminal point. 16 Q So would it be fair to say that daily, 17 almost every day you work, there are inspections going 18 on of coach carb? 19 A Yes. 20 Q And nothing about this strikes you several 21 years later as reminding you of anything. 22 A No. 1 8 1 Do you have any independent recollection at 2 all besides this memo of anybody around that time 3 asking you to do any inspection or asking you any 4 questions about a latch of the trap door on that car? 5 A lio. 6 Q So I take it when the attorneys or the 7 claim agents came out of the woodwork recently and 8 asked you if you were going to come to a deposition, 9 nothing that they have Bhown you has really helped you 10 remember anything about this incident? 11 A No. 12 Q Have you had any conversations with Miss 13 Utley or any of the other workers with Amtrak about 14 anything they may have done to inspect this particular 15 car at that time? 16 A I don't recall. 17 Q Mr. McArthur, and is that a Mr. Quigley and 18 Mr. Ware? 19 A Yes. 20 Q You know both of those trainmasters? 21 A YeB. 22 Q You don't remember talking to them around 1 9 1 the time of June of '92 about anything concerning this 2 particular accident? 3 A No. 4 Q Do you know how long MIBS Utley had worked 5 as a foreman as of 1992? 6 A No, I don't know. 7 Q In your duties as a trainmaster how often 8 would you see Miss Utley or Car Foreman Barnes on a 9 typical day? I mean would you see them around? 10 A oh, yeah, quite often. 11 Q There are some other names on here I wanted 12 to ask you about. Who is M.R. Farr? 13 A He was the manager of the mechanical in the 14 station at the time. 15 Q Is he still based here in Washington? 16 A No. 17 Q IB he retired or haB he moved? 18 A He iB still employed. He workb down in 19 Sanford, Florida. 20 Q What about J.S. Garner? 21 A I don't know if he is still employed with 22 Amtrak. 2 0 1 Q What type of job did he have? 2 A He was a general foreman, mechanical. 3 Q Have you seen him at all in the labt few 4 years? 5 A lio. 6 Q How long has it been since he was working 7 that you can remember? 8 A I would have to say probably about four 9 years since I have seen him. 10 Q Do you remember anything about requesting 11 another mechanical inBpeCtion report on this 12 particular coach after train 90 left Washington and 13 headed to New York on the 14th or 15th of June? 14 A No, I don't recall. 15 Q I notice here it says a CC of this memo was 16 Bent -- in other words, there was the memo from miss 17 Utley. Then there is a handwritten note on the bottom 18 here and then there is a CC to you. Did you look 19 through your file to see if you could find this stuff? 20 A No. I don't have any fileo back from that 21 date. 22 Q But you have looked and you didn't find 2 1 1 anything? 2 A No, I haven't looked. 3 Q Oh, you haven't looked. 4 A No. Because I don't have anything from 5 back then. 6 Q When you have inspection records like this, 7 how do you keep them? I mean do you keep them by jUBt 8 date or do you keep them by -- 9 A Me personally I don't keep them. 10 Q Who do you paBS them along to? 11 A Well, if it's addressed to me, I just look 12 at it and get the information I need off of it and 13 then I discard it. 14 Q Let me show you this. Have you ever seen 15 that before? Maybe an attorney showed it to you more 16 recently. 17 A Seen this form or this actual -- 18 Q Particular InveBtigation Committee Report. 19 MR. SPACEK: Before we go too far, has that 20 been marked as No. 2? 21 MR. SHAPIRO: No. Off the record. 22 (DiBCUssion off the record.) 2 2 1 MR. SHAPIRO: For identification purposes 2 we will mark this as No. 2, which is the handwritten 3 memos that were all on one page. 4 (The document referred to was 5 marked Plaintiff's Exhibit 6 No. 2 for identification.) 7 MR. SPACEK: Just for the record, let me 8 object to the Investigation Committee Report. I will 9 just note a continuing objection to questions about it 10 because I don't want to interrupt your questioning. 11 MR. SHAPIRO: Okay. 12 THE WITNESS: No, I have never seen this 13 Committee Investigation Report. 14 BY MR. SHAPIRO: 15 Q You have seen those types of reports 16 before? 17 A Yes. 18 Q Have you taken part in Investigation 19 Committee Reports yourself? 20 A Quite often. 21 Q How do they come about, those Committee 22 InveBtigation Reports? 2 3 1 A They come about due to an employee getting 2 injured, and what happens is we do an investigation 3 into the injury and based upon the information that we 4 gather, we transfer it onto this Investigation 5 Committee Report. We also get together two other 6 members to be on the committee. 7 Q Those are generally other members that are 8 not directly involved in supervising the persons that 9 are involved in the report itself? 10 A Yes. It could be a committee of whoever 11 you choose. 12 Q What is the idea behind having a couple 13 other people that are supervibory in nature involved 14 in the committee? 15 A Well, in an incident such as thib you would 16 want someone from mechanical, preferably the person 17 who did the inbpection -- if not, their supervisor -- 18 and another supervisory of a transportation nature. 19 And the purpose io to get various ideas of what 20 happened. If you did an inspection, what was found on 21 the inspection. And to come up with recommendations 22 to help prevent injurieb in the future. 2 4 1 Q Are those reports considered official as 2 far aB the findings? 3 MR. SPACEK: Objection. 4 THE WITNESS: What do you mean when you say 5 official? 6 BY MR. SHAPIRO: 7 Q In the sense that the company puts together 8 the committee and the committee writes their report on 9 a form and they become a company record, don't they, 10 of what happened? 11 MR. SPACEK: Objection. 12 THE WITNESS: Yes. 13 BY MR. SHAPIRO: 14 Q And the company places some faith in the 15 committee reports, doesn't it? 16 MR. SPACEK: Objection. 17 THE WITNESS: Yes. 18 BY MR. SHAPIRO: 19 Q I notice on this particular report which I 20 handed you which YOU Baid you weren't personally 21 familiar with i.J. McArthur we talked about, he was 22 involved in the report, and E.J. Quigley. He is an 2 5 1 assistant trainmaster also? What doeb the ATM stand 2 for? 3 A That's aBBistant. 4 Q Okay. And Mr. Ware alBO is an assistant 5 trainmaster? 6 A Yes. 7 Q Were they based out of the Washington area 8 then in 1992, all three? 9 A Mr. Ware wasn't. Mr. Ware worked in 10 Salisbury. But he was a part of what we call the 11 Washington division. 12 Q A moment ago you jUBt mentioned that you 13 would want Bomeone from mechanical and someone from 14 tranbportation. Were they all in the same division or 15 same type of work with the railroad? 16 A Yes. 17 Q In June 192 I think you said Mr. McArthur 18 had a supervisory POBition over yourself and I guess 19 some other trainmasters in this area? 20 A His title was higher than ours. 21 Q Is there any particular reason that you 22 were not a part of the committee also? 2 6 1 A Well, at the time Amtrak was broken up into 2 various divisions, which it still is, and this 3 employee that was injured is what we call a Zone 5 4 employee. Zone 5 encompabsed Washington Bouth. And 5 also Mr. Quigley was in Richmond at the time, 6 Virginia. And I myself supervised what we call Zone 2 7 employeeb. These employeeb encompassed from 8 Washington north. 9 Q All right. Have you seen in the vestibule 10 area of these Amfleet coach carb more than one type of 11 latching mechanism to hold up a trap door? 12 A What do you mean when YOU Bay more than 13 one? 14 Q In other words, have you seen different 15 types of latches to hold trap doors? 16 A YeB. 17 Q What different types have you seen? is A Well, I can't really describe them, but the 19 coach in question is a newer type coach. We have 20 older coaches which have different type latches. ]3ut 21 they basically perform the same function. 22 Q Let me show you, I have a little drawing 2 7 1 here. It's not real good. 2 MR. SHAPIRO: Before I leave that, we were 3 referring to this Investigation Committee Report. I'm 4 just going to put a 3 on here for identification 5 purpOBes. 6 (The document referred to was 7 marked Plaintiff'B Exhibit 8 no. 3 for identification.) 9 MR. SHAPIRO: I'm going to put a little 4 10 at the top of the page here. 11 (The document referred to was 12 marked Plaintiff's Exhibit 13 No. 4 for identification.) 14 BY MR. SHAPIRO: 15 Q I have read a few things that refer to the 16 types of latches. If you will, these are supposed to 17 be a trap door. There are two on the page here. I 18 have a number four in the top right-hand corner. 19 I saw a photograph, it might be the one I 20 showed you, that showb a rather small latch where 21 there is a rather small piece of metal that holds onto 22 the trap door in the up position and they described in 2 8 1 some of the other materials I read a larger or broader 2 base on the latch. And over here, I will call this B, 3 this is my crude diagram of that. Is that what they 4 are talking about generally? Not to scale, but that 5 the latch is wider or covers more of the trap door on 6 this one I have marked B here? 7 MR. SPACEK: I just want to object to the 8 drawing. I don't know how it can be representative of 9 what the actual breadth of the latch is. Maybe he can 10 describe it. 11 MR. SHAPIRO: It's not supposed to be to 12 Bcale at all. I want to make sure when they say a 13 broader base I know what they are talking about. 14 THE WITNESS: I'm not really Bure what they 15 are talking about when they say broader base. 16 BY MR. SHAPIRO: 17 Q If you want to write on this, go ahead and is feel free. On B here, the other types of latching 19 means that you have Been, what is different about 20 those from some of the smaller latches? 21 A Basically just what you have drawn here. 22 The latch part, the outer part itself may be bigger, 2 9 1 but they all have the little flip mechanism right here 2 that allows the trap when you pull it to be taken down 3 and they all have a little mechanism here that latches 4 the trap. Row whether -- most of them are like this. 5 Q You just drew on A; right? 6 A Right. 7 Q most of them are like A. Then what were 8 you going to show me on B? 9 A On diagram B, the only thing I have seen on 10 B is the outside mechanism itself may be bigger. But 11 the latching mechanibm itself is Btill basically about 12 the same size. 13 Q Okay. Is there a Btandard practice for the 14 car inspectorb or the foremen, when they are going to 15 check a trap door such as this on an Amfleet, is there 16 a standard way you check a trap door to see if it's 17 working properly? 18 A Well, there iB only one way to check. 19 That's to flip the little, in diagram A, flip the 20 little handle to see if the trap comes down and then 21 put the trap back up to see if it holds. Then if that 22 holds, then we will pull on the trap handles to see if 3 0 1 it will come loose as you are getting on or off the 2 train. 3 Q In other words, to see if it comes loose, 4 apply pressure to it like a passenger might as they 5 are going up or down the steps; right? 6 A Yes. Except a little more force than that. 7 MR. SHAPIRO: Okay. I don't have anything 8 further. 9 MR. SPACEK: I don't have anything. 10 (Whereupon, at 1:13 p.m. the deposition was 11 adjourned.) 12 (By stipulation of counsel, 13 in the presence of the witness, 14 reading and signature waived.) 15 16 17 18 19 2 0 21 2 2 3 1 1 CERTIFICATE OF NOTARY PUBLIC 2 I, Karen Hinnenkamp, the officer before whom 3 the foregoing deposition was taken, do hereby 4 certify that the witness whose testimony appears in 5 the foregoing deposition was duly sworn by me; that 6 the testimony of said witneBS was taken by me in 7 machine shorthand and thereafter reduced to writing 8 by means of computer-aided transcription; that said 9 deposition iB a true record of the testimony given 10 by said witness; that I am neither counsel for, 11 related to, nor employed by any of the parties to 12 the action in which this deposition was taken; and 13 further that I am not a relative or employee of any 14 attorney or counbel employed by the parties thereto, 15 nor financially or otherwise interested in the 16 outcome of the action. 17 18 19 No Public in and "fl-r 2 0 the District of Colum; a 21 My commission expires: 22 July 31, 1998