On March 2 and 3. 1972. all three engineers were offered the choice of resignation or firing. They all refused to resign and were dismissed on the grounds of insubordination. lying to their superiors (they had denied being the source of the leaks), and failing to follow organizational procedures They all suffered as a result of their dismissal. None was able to find work for a number of months, and all suffered financial and emotional problems as a result. They sued BART for $875,000,but were forced to settle out of court, since it was likely that their lying to superiors would be very detrimental to the case. Each received just $25,000.
As the legal proceedings were taking place,the IEEE attempted to assist the three engineers by filing an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in their support. The IEEE asserted that each of the engineers had professional duty to keep the safety of the pubic paramount and that their actions were therefore justified.
Based- on the IEEE code of ethics, the brief stated that engineers must "notify the proper authority of any observed conditions which endanger public safety and health." The brief interpreted this statement to mean that in the case of public employment, the proper authority is the public itself.
This was perhaps the first time that a national engineering professional society had intervened in a legal proceeding on behalf of engineers who had apparently been fulfilling their duties according to a professional code of ethics.
Safety concerns continued to mount as BART was put into operation. For example, on October 2,1972, less than a month after BART was put into revenue service, a BART train overshot the station at Fremont, California and crashed into a sand embankment.
There were no fatalities, but five persons were injured.
The accident was attributed to a malfunction of a crystal oscillator, part of the ATC, which controlled the speed commands for the train. Subsequent to this accident, there were several investigations and reports on the operation of BART. These revealed that there had been other problems and malfunctions in the system.
Trains had often been allowed too close to each other;sometimes a track was indicated to be occupied when it wasn't and was indicated not to be occupied when it was. The safety concerns of the three engineers seemed to be borne out by the early operation of the system.
Ultimately, the ATC was improved and the bugs worked out. In the years since, BART has accumulated an excellent safety record and has served as the model for other high-tech mass transit systems around the country.