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. 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 scramble to safety. Seats from the smashed cars spilled
out onto the track.
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
Northeast Washington, D.C., today," Obama said in a statement
issued Monday night. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the
families and friends affected by this tragedy."
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 Maryland border in
northeast Washington.
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 Takoma Park
station and were headed in the direction of the Fort Totten station.
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 the first
rescuers to arrive had to use the "jaws of life" to pry open a wire
fence along rail line to get to the train.
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 Howard University Hospital, Dr. Johnnie Ford, an emergency
room doctor, said a 14-year-old girl suffered two broken legs in
the accident. A 20-year-old male patient "looked like he had been
tumbled around quite a bit, bumps and bruises from head to toe,"
Ford said.
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 Los
Angeles, killing 25 people. The crash was blamed on an
engineer on the commuter rail sending text messages on a cell phone.
• Last month about 50 people were injured in Boston when one
trolley rear-ended another. The conductor admitted to sending a text message when the crash occurred.
No reason was given for the Washington crash, but some safety
experts are concerned about the recent increase.
"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
14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff
in a severe snowstorm from Washington
National Airport across the Potomac
River. The plane crash killed 78 people.
--AP