Congratulations to Virginia DOT

The Washington Post carries stories of lots of apologies, many of them, unfortunately, from erring "public servants."  And many of those aren't apologies at all, deep down.  They often lament the pain, humiliation and embarrassment their errant behavior inflicts on others without displaying the authentic repentence most of us are taught each Sabbath.

Now comes the Virginia Department of Transportation which confessed in Friday's Post that it "bungled" the response to a February 12 ice storm that put thousands at risk and hundreds, at least, stranded in their cars on the elevated bridges of the "Mixing Bowl" in Springfield.  A disastrous storm, we'd agree and the disaster compounded by VDOT's mistakes.

Congratulations, however, to VDOT for manfully stepping up and doing the right thing.  Expressions of regret, even sincere and painfully public expressions, are important -- and expected.  What the public should expect -- and, in this case, received -- is some evidence that things will be different next time. 

We expect that VDOT does post-storm and post-season analysis of its snowfighting response efforts.  That's the only way agencies can improve their performance of this life-saving service.  VDOT's report, the Post summarized, identified specific failures, including that "anti-icing equipment sat unused, electronic warning signs remained dark and a motorist alert system was not updated for hours."  As taxpayers and roadway users, we applaud VDOT Commissioner David Ekern's confession because it so clearly points the way forward to addressing identified shortcomings:

"We got overwhelmed," VDOT Commissioner David S. Ekern said yesterday in a telephone news conference. "We weren't prepared for the size and magnitude."

Ekern released a frank review of the agency's response to the storm, identifying errors, misjudgments and communication gaffes by VDOT workers.

"The events of February 12 were clearly unacceptable in terms of our performance," Ekern said at the news conference. "We'll learn from this, and we'll move forward."

The ice storm, which occurred at the beginning of the rush hour, closed one of the East Coast's largest highway interchanges, which was completed last year at a cost of $676 million. There were 331 traffic incidents, including 108 at the Springfield interchange between 3 p.m. and midnight, when the last ramp was reopened. About 50 injuries were reported in the region from accidents caused by the quarter-inch-thick coating of ice.

Ekern outlined a series of agency reforms and procedural changes, including developing a formal action plan for an ice storm -- VDOT does not have one -- and clarifying the chain of command. Of the more than 1,300 pieces of equipment available to the Northern Virginia VDOT district, only five are capable of anti-icing, and they are owned by contractors.

We were struck by the noted cost of this huge highway project and reminded of another multi-million number -- $205 million -- which is the DAILY COST of inadequate snowfighting in Virginia as modeled by the economic consulting firm Global Insight, Inc.  These costs of failure include lost wages, lost retail sales and lost federal, state and local tax revenues payable on that economic activity.  Just in terms of reducing crashes during snowstorms, applying salt to winter highways pays for itself in the first half hour after it's applied.  Not a lot of government programs deliver that much bang for the buck.

Of course, we'd prefer to offer congratulations to our heroic snowfighters for their success in keeping roadways open and operating safely, but this was the next-best thing:  the realistic likelihood that next winter a similiar storm will be handled with greater efficiency.  Thanks for caring, VDOT.

Now, if we could only get our politicians to be such stand-up models of what to do when "mistakes were made."