A whistleblower who doesn't want to be identified says RTD train operators are being exposed to methamphetamine and fentanyl use daily basis.
"I can just tell they are fed up because they can't get any help," they said. "Upon reporting that they're told to air out their train and let them know if they can't continue"
Ronald G. Short with Amalgamated Transit Union 1001, the union that represents RTD operators, says ever since the police and RTD started cleaning up Union Station, drug users have moved to trains and busses, exposing operators to all kinds of different dangers.
"There's been an existing problem over, I say, the past couple of years," he said. "Fentanyl, meth, marijuana just a whole gambit of different drugs"
Dr. Eric Hill is an emergency room physician at the Medical Center of Aurora. He says secondhand exposure isn't common but can happen.
"They might feel kind of disoriented. They might get a little bit of hallucinations or feel paranoid," Hill said.
It's something Short says his operators have experienced firsthand, "We've had several train operators out there on the W Line that had been overcome as well as bus operators."
The whistleblower says they have heard of trains being abandoned because the operator was affected by secondhand meth exposure.
"I'm aware of a train operator having to abandon their train," they said.
Short says RTD and the union have recently agreed to give operators two days off to seek medical treatment and recover if they've been...
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