DC Metro Train Accident

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Greenberg & Bederman

 

“The Metro train car that slammed into another on the Red Line yesterday evening was two months past due for scheduled maintenance on its brakes, and the car was an older model that federal officials had recommended be replaced because of concerns about its safety in a crash, officials said today.” – Washington Post, 6/23/09

There isn’t a lot to say about this just yet. The National Transportation Safety Board is still examining the wreckage of the two trains at the time of this writing, so we don’t know whether or not the two months lateness on the brakes of the car was a factor or not.

In fact, the reports are varying. In this morning’s Washington Post, staff writer Lyndsey Layton wrote the following:

“Experts familiar with Metro's operations focused last night on a failure of the signal system and operator error as likely causes of yesterday's fatal Red Line crash….Metro was designed with a fail-safe computerized signal system that is supposed to prevent trains from colliding. The agency's trains are run by onboard computers that control speed and braking. Another electronic system detects the position of trains to maintain a safe distance between them. If they get too close, the computers automatically apply the brakes, stopping the trains.”

It seems obvious now that the “fail-safe” system was anything but. And we still don’t know what role driver error had in the crash. The operator of the train that hit the stopped car was killed, but the driver who stopped is scheduled to be interviewed at the time of this writing, so there might be some answers there.

But in the meantime, what everyone in the D.C. area has to contend with is the fact that nine people are dead, among them a former Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard. There is also the fact that seventy-six people were injured, in ways ranging from minor to critical.

The best that we can hope for right now is that the people who were injured are able to make full recoveries as soon as possible. And we also hope that whatever recommendations that the NTSB comes up with after their investigation are fully implemented.

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