What caused the DC Metro Trains to collide during an evening commute?
A Metro train car was stalled, waiting for clearance into the Fort Totten station, when a second one plowed into it from behind, according to D.C. fire officials. The accident happened around 4:59 p.m. on the city’s red line in northeast Washington between the Takoma Park and Fort Totten stations. The female train operator who was killed, whose name has not yet been released, was driving the rear train. A D.C. alert Monday evening said, “Metro reports that two trains collided and one train is on top of the other train.” At 8:17 p.m., a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said he did not know which train was on top — the stalled train, or the trailing one. D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier discouraged family members from coming to the collision scene to retrieve or inquire about loved ones, to avoid overwhelming emergency workers. Sources: http://abcnews.go.com/News/comments?
D.C. Metro Trains Collide During Evening Commute At least six people were killed and scores injured Monday evening after two subway trains collided during rush hour in Washington, D.C. Two Red Line commuter trains collide and derail near Washington, D.C. Cars of both trains were ripped open and smashed together, and District of Columbia fire spokesman Alan Etter said crews had to cut some people out of what he described as a “mass casualty event.” Rescue workers propped steel ladders up to the upper train cars to help survivors escape. Seats from the smashed cars had spilled out onto the track. According to an update posted on the Metro Web site, there are at least “100 injuries, many serious, according to preliminary reports.” One of the victims is a female Metro employee operating one of the trains. At a press conference near the scene, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty called it the “deadliest accident in the history of our Metro train system.” Sources:
