Investigators Search For Answers In DC Metro Crash

Jun 23rd, 2009
WCBSTV.com
http://wcbstv.com/national/dc.metro.crash.2.1055751.html


7 Killed, Scores Injured In Worst Accident Of Metrorail's 33-Year History

The worst accident in 33-year history of Metrorail, Washington's subway system, is under investigation by authorities trying to determine why a train plowed into the rear of another, killing at least seven people and injuring scores of others.

Overnight the death toll had been raised to nine, but Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said two people remained in critical condition Tuesday.

A federal safety official says in the wake of Washington's deadly subway accident that the country needs better crash-worthiness standards for rail cars.

Debbie Hersman, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said today that the agency had 'made recommendations to various entities,' including the metropolitan and federal government, to improve safety standards.

On CBS' The Early Show Tuesday, Hersman said it is too early to know if either conductor was distracted at the time of the crash. She added that the NTSB was still trying to find out if the trains were automated or manually driven when the crash occurred.

Earlier Monday, officials confirmed six deaths, including the operator of the trailing train, Jeanice McMillan of Springfield, Va. Metro spokesman Steve Taubenkibel said McMillan had been a Metro employee since January 2007.

According to Metro officials, one six-car train was stopped as it waited for a train ahead of it to clear a station. When another six-car train barreled into it with such force the first two cars were foisted up into the air, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

Hersman said investigators would cast a wide net, including checking operator procedures and track signals, interviewing witnesses and inspecting the tracks themselves. She said officials also were searching the wreckage for devices on the trains that record operating speeds and commands.

'It is a scene of real devastation,' she said of the crash, which ripped open passenger cars when the trains smashed together. More details were expected at a Tuesday morning news conference.

Metro general manager John Catoe said an automated computer system used to run trains was supposed to keep them apart, but it was not clear whether the system was in use when the crash occurred.

'Everyone was just shocked,' Maya Maroto, who was riding the moving train and inside the car that went airborne, told CBS' The Early Show. Maroto called the collision a 'severe impact,' but added 'we kept calm.'

People inside some of the cars were banging on the windows trying to get out, said Jervis Bryant of Upper Marlboro, Md., who was in the area at the time.

Bryant said he ran over to help, but couldn't get close enough to reach the passengers. He said some eventually began exiting the trains.

'It's a scene I never thought I would see,' said Bryant, who frequently rides the Metro. 'It was more frightening to watch and not to be able to help.'

More than 200 firefighters from D.C., Maryland and Virginia eventually converged on the scene. Sabrina Webber, a 45-year-old real estate agent who lives in the neighborhood, said she 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.

The crash around 5 p.m. 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 Maryland state line in northeast Washington.

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.

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 Takoma Park station and were headed in the direction of the Fort Totten station.

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 beneath downtown. That was a day of disaster in the capital: Shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the 14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff from Washington National Airport across the Potomac River. The plane crash, during a severe snowstorm, killed 78 people.

In January 2007, a subway train derailed in downtown Washington, sending 20 people to the hospital and prompting the rescue of 60 others from the tunnel. In November 2006, two Metro track workers were struck and killed by an out-of-service train. An investigation found that the train operator failed to follow safety procedures. Another Metro worker was struck and killed in May 2006.