"Since its inauguration in 1968, this is the Metro Authority's first project in which the technical department of the (state-owned) firm was completely locked out of the process. "Our technical people are internationally renowned. In the old days, the contractor was hired and the technical people from the Metro Authority did the oversight, deciding whether work would go forward or not. Now, our technicians only have access to the job site when the work is completed," said Manuel Xavier, communications director of the Metro Workers Union.

Another construction project on the Metro, currently underway — the extension of Line 2, which links the Vila Madalena [about 200 yards from us here –Ed], in the Western Zone, to the Alto de Ipiranga, in the Southern Zone — is being run on the "old" system for public-private partnerships, in which public inspectors guide the work of contractors and their employees. In this work, no t a single accident has been reported so far. On Line 4, on the other hand, without counting last Friday's collapse, dozens of accidents have occurred, with 11 workers injured and one dead.