Professional practices/ethics: The case of the three engineers vs. BART: The outcome of a suit brought by three Bay Area Rapid Transit exemployees may set a historic precedent in the public interest

An $885 000 lawsuit was recently filed, and leveled at the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system management, by three of its former engineer-employees. (The trial in Superior Court, Alameda County, Calif., is scheduled to begin on October 25.) This latest in a series of technological and financial troubles ¿ cost overruns caused by inflation, labor stoppages, illegal change orders, erratic appropriations, quality-control deficiencies, etc. (many of which were discussed in the writer´s articles in the September, October, and November 1972 issues, and in the March and April 1973 issues of Spectrum) ¿ presents potentially the most serious implications to the engineering profession of any of BART´s past woes. Although the continued operation and future development of the BART system will remain relatively unaffected by the outcome of this litigation, the dispute that triggered the engineers´ suit warrants the attention of every professional engineer because of its grave technical and ethical underpinnings.