The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is a tri-jurisdictional government agency that operates rail and bus transit services. The Metro, as it is called, is funded by the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland.
Nine people were killed and many more passengers were injured when two Washington Metro subway trains collided Monday afternoon June 21, 2009 in Washington, DC. Red Line of the Transit Authority between the Takoma and Fort Totten Metrorail stations. The National Transportation Safety Board (NHTSA) is investigating, but likely won’t have a report on the cause of the crash for many months. This is what we know.
Metro’s 112 train was the oldest in the fleet and was delivered to Metro sometime between 1975 and 1978. The train in question was being operated by an employee with approximately 3 months experience. However, Metro 112 was usually controlled by a computer rather than the operator, unless the train was in manual mode. Metro 112 is reported to have been in “automatic mode” at the time of the collision, meaning the computer was operating the train, not the train operator on board. It is also reported that the emergency brake of train 112 had been pressed, which could mean that the train operator tried to manually stop the train to avoid the collision. However, the lever could have been forced forward by bodily contact or other contact. The NTSB has also confirmed that Metro 112 was two months behind on scheduled brake maintenance.
The other piece of information our attorneys are focusing on is that federal officials recommended that the 112 train should have been replaced due to concerns about its age. Safety watchdogs warned Washington subway operators three years ago about the weaknesses of aging subway cars like the 112 train in terms of crashworthiness. The NTSB has also said that it told Washington Metro in 2006 that the car on its 1000-series trains, such as the 112 train, was likely to unreasonably collapse in a collision that jeopardized the safety of passengers and crew. .
Clearly, research is currently focused on the on-board computers that control the speed and braking of trains, Metro’s track signaling system, which was specifically designed to avoid collisions like this, and the age of the 112 train. , one of approximately 300-1000 series. We won’t know for months what caused, or the multiple causes, of this deadly commuter train accident. However, it is already clear that this accident could have been avoided. Safety systems and procedures are designed to prevent an accident like this from happening. Clearly something went wrong. Remember that it was only 8 months ago that another commuter train in Los Angeles, California claimed the lives of 20 passengers. The operator in that case was operating a cell phone at the time of the collision.