Commuter Trains Collide in D.C. Metro

We've been told there is now 2 confirmed deaths, though there may be one more casualty still on the train. A lot injured... 40 is the number as it stands on confirmed people that were transported to local hospitals.

Keeping my redline riding friends in my thoughts...
 
Update via WJLA: Mayor Fenty just said that there are 4 confirmed deaths... :(
 
Update via WJLA: Mayor Fenty just said that there are 4 confirmed deaths. :(
 
70 injured... 2 are in grave condition... 4 deaths... over half of those injured are "walking wounded"... rest are considered significantly injured but treatable.
 
Horrible. My sister said it was passed her stop so she was already off. She said it is a huge mess.
Poor people.
 
Horrible. My sister said it was passed her stop so she was already off. She said it is a huge mess.
Poor people.

Thank goodness your sister had already gotten off. It really is a mess... and while issues do plague the red line, a lot, this came out of left field. DC officials are saying it is the worst incident in Metro's history. :(
 
Thank goodness your sister had already gotten off. It really is a mess... and while issues do plague the red line, a lot, this came out of left field. DC officials are saying it is the worst incident in Metro's history. :(
Thanks Elphaba. Sounds awful. My sister works in Public safety.( I call her my disaster sister),so she may have info for us.
 
Horrible. My sister said it was passed her stop so she was already off. She said it is a huge mess.
Poor people.


A blessing Bean. I am so glad your sister was off the train. Unbelievable thinking of the people who were trapped in the train underneath. Horrible. Think of all the families impacted. xox
 
I just heard on FOX NEWS there had been recommendations to replace equip on at least one of these trains 3 yrs ago and this was not done. Think of all the people who rode this train daily, a disaster almost waiting to happen it seems. It was being manually operated at the time of the rear-end crash. I found this article:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hU3cpgoid9QpJxcW0GKm1A55auIAD990CKH00

ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 23, 2009
Feds investigate DC train crash that killed 7

By BRETT ZONGKER and MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN – 57 minutes ago

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The subway train that plowed into another, causing a crash that killed seven and injured scores of others in the nation's capital, was part of an aging fleet that federal regulators had recommended three years ago be phased out or retrofitted, a safety investigator said Tuesday.

Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board said the Metrorail transit system "was not able to do what we asked them to do."

The rush-hour crashed sent more than 70 people to area hospitals and killed at least seven people. The three-decades-old Metro system shuttled tourists and local commuters from Washington to Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

There was conflicting information about the number of fatalities.

Mayor Adrian Fenty announced Tuesday that seven had died in the crash along a part of Metro system track that carries passengers from the District of Columbia into suburban Maryland. . . . ." More at link
 
This scares me. I ride the NYC subways all the time and just have to force myself to not think about these things happening. I see how some of the MTA (Mass Transit Authority) employees are acting on the train and it is not exactly comforting.

Not to get off the subject but the biggest thing that scares me about the NYC subways is the fact that there is NO security. Anyone could walk on the train with a bomb or a gun. Sure, there are little tables where police stand supposedly to search people's bags but 99% of the time they are just hanging out, talking, eating while thousands of people are streaming past them. It would be so easy and I fear it is only a matter of time. Something like 6 million+ people ride the trains in NYC and you just can't have proper security when dealing with those kinds of numbers if you want the metro to run quickly and smoothly.
 
I was in DC last fall and I did ride the metro. I'm trying to puzzle out in my mind how these trains collided exactly. Did one jump a track?
 
From what I understand one rear-ended the other one.
 
I Just hope the engineer wasn't texting as was the case in our horrific Metrolink train crash last year.
 
9 dead now :( i just rode the metro yesterday, although not on the line that had the accident. i ride the metro often and have never thought of the system as even remotely unsafe. how sad for the families and friends of the victims.
 

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