WASHINGTON — One Metro transit train smashed into the rear of another at the
height of the capital city's Monday evening rush hour, killing at least six
people and injuring scores of others as the front end of the trailing train
jackknifed violently into the air and fell atop the first.
Cars of both trains were ripped open and smashed together in the worst
accident in the Metrorail system's 33-year history.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said six were confirmed dead. Fire Chief Dennis
Rubin said rescue workers treated 76 people at the scene and sent some of them
to local hospitals, six with critical injuries. A search for further victims
continued into the night.
A Metro official said the dead included the operator of the trailing train.
Her name was not immediately released.
President Barack Obama sent his condolences to the victims of the crash.
"Michelle and I were saddened by the terrible accident in
The president also thanked rescue personnel who helped to save lives.
The crash around 5 p.m. EDT took place on the system's red line, Metro's
busiest, which runs below ground for much of its length but is at ground level
at the accident site near the
Metro chief John Catoe said the first train was stopped on the tracks,
waiting for another to clear the station ahead when the trailing train, one of
the oldest in the Metro fleet, plowed into it from behind.
Officials had no explanation for the accident. The National Transportation
Safety Board took charge of the investigation and sent a team to the site. DC
police and the FBI also had investigators at the scene to help search the
wreckage for any overlooked injured or dead passengers and evidence.
Officials would not say how fast the train was traveling at the time of the
accident. The crash occurred in an area with a sizable distance between rail
stations in which trains are allowed to travel at higher speeds, Metro
spokeswoman Candace Smith said.
Investigators are searching the wreckage for the trains' devices that record
operating speeds and commands, NTSB member Debbie Hersman said.
Each train had six cars and was capable of holding as many as 1,200 people.
Hersman said the trains were bound for downtown. That would mean they were less
likely to be filled during the afternoon rush hour.
The trains had pulled out of the
More than 200 firefighters from D.C.,
Webber raced to the scene after hearing a loud boom like a "thunder
crash" and then sirens. She said there was no panic among the survivors.
Passenger Jodie Wickett, a nurse, told CNN she was seated on one train,
sending text messages on her phone, when she felt the impact. She said she sent
a message to someone that it felt like the train had hit a bump.
"From that point on, it happened so fast, I flew out of the seat and
hit my head." Wickett said she stayed at the scene and tried to help. She
said "people are just in very bad shape."
"The people that were hurt, the ones that could speak, were calling
back as we called out to them," she said. "Lots of people were upset
and crying, but there were no screams."
One man said he was riding a bicycle across a bridge over the Metro tracks
when the sound of the crash got his attention.
"I didn't see any panic," Barry Student said. "The whole
situation was so surreal."
At
Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said less than two hours
after the crash that federal authorities had no indication of any terrorism
connection.
"I don't know the reason for this accident," Metro's Catoe said.
"I would still say the system is safe, but we've had an incident."
Monday's crash was the third major subway or commuter rail crash in a big
city in the past nine months. In the earlier accidents:
— In September 2008, a commuter rail train and a freight train crashed in
— Last month about 50 people were injured in
No reason was given for the
"I'm not sure if everyone in the safety system is paying the proper
attention that needs to be paid," said Barry Sweedler, a San
Francisco-based safety consultant and former investigator and manager at the
NTSB. "These things shouldn't be happening."
However, Robert Lauby, a former NTSB rail investigator, said the increase in
accidents could well be mere coincidence.
"Just because you had them doesn't mean there's a specific issue that
caused them," Lauby said.
The only other time in Metrorail's 33-year history that there were passenger
fatalities was on Jan. 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a
derailment underneath downtown. That was a day of disaster in the capital —
shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the
Associated Press writers Brett J.
Blackledge, Eileen Sullivan, Richard Lardner, Jim Kuhnhenn and Seth Borenstein
in Washington and AP researcher Judith Ausuebel in
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