HOUSTON -- Operators of METRORail trains are running red lights and putting people's lives in danger, the Local 2 Troubleshooters reported in an exclusive story Monday.

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Driver Alerts Troubleshooters To Train Running Red Light

A camera on a train seen running a red light at Main and Pierce streets on Friday captured video of an operator blowing through a red light.

"It was really kind of frightening because I am looking at the light thinking, 'Wait a minute. Wait a minute. (My) light is green.' I was watching it as the train went through and still it was green," witness Dale Higginbotham told Local 2.

After experiencing the near miss, Higginbotham called the Troubleshooters, who obtained a copy of the video taken on board the train.

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METRO's Senior Vice President of Operation David Feeley told Local 2 the driver was suspended without pay after reviewing the video.

Feeley said Friday's incident was not an isolated case -- that it was the second time in the same week that the transit system caught a light-rail conductor running a red light.

"I am going to tighten up the work rules and tighten up the discipline," the METRO officials said.

Feeley, who recently joined METRO, said things are changing at the transit system. He said under current rules, light-rail operators are given a warning the first time they are caught running a red light.

"The discipline is going to be a little more swift and a little more aggressive. It's not going to be a warning. It's going to be serious stuff," Feeley said.

The Troubleshooters reported that disciplinary measures could only be taken when METRO officials pull video from a light-rail train's onboard camera, like it did after Higginbotham's complaint.

However, a Troubleshooters report in April exposed METRO officials not pulling video when they received complaints.

Feeley told Local 2 that is one example of a system that he finds too casual.

"The treatment of the situation seems to be very casual under the existing work rules. I happen to think that when a train runs a signal, it is not a casual event -- it is a very serious life-threatening event," Feeley said.

All of these are changes that citizens, like Higginbotham, say need to happen.

"If they had waited just a few more seconds when the traffic had gotten into the intersection, it would have been a chain reaction," Higginbotham said.

The Troubleshooters reported that trains do not technically run red lights but rather a horizontal or vertical bar, stop and go respectively, which work in concert with traffic lights.

Officials with the transit system said instead of waiting for drivers to complain, they want to install an alarm system that would alert the control center immediately after a conductor runs a red light.

The Local 2 Troubleshooters reported on the problem of trains running red lights in January. The report prompted METRO to change the way it investigated complaints from drivers.