Metro Collision, Washington DC
 

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0609/634125.html

At my last check, there's been 1 fatality and 9 injuries.

I hope all the GCers in the DC area are ok!

Update: "At least two" fatalities (http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/22/was...ash/index.html)

Today was also the first day of the summer youth employment program, so let's keep the teens in prayer, too.

This line and these stations are in the neighborhoods where I live and work, but I don't usually catch the train.

Thanks babe, I'm ok. My husband's law school is in that area, but luckily he didn't go out there today.

I send my prayers out to everyone...I was on the red line today (on the other end of DC), and we were stopped for 45 minutes clueless until myself and some other riders got news alerts on our blackberries. It's so terrifying....this is not a good month for DC.

And ADqtPiMel, I'm glad you and your husband are okay!

Glad to hear you and your husband are ok.

I'm touching base with my friends in the area now; a bunch of my friends have moved down there in recent years. Sounds like everyone is ok.

Was definitely on the red line, but not in NE. In the stations at first they said the red line at Fort Totten was closed because of a "technical difficulty" and then changed to "because of police activity." Noticed no difference on the yellow and blue lines.

Yes in NE (Northeast DC)
 

The accident was between Fort Totten and Takoma Stations, in the area where the Metro runs above ground in Northeast DC along side the Amtrak tracks. Brookland-CUA was closed as well as the two stations above. Last I saw, the count was 7 deaths.

According to wikipedia, the exact location is at 38.9605,-77.006, which is more or less where New Hampshire avenue crosses the track. See http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=38.96...8.9605,-77.006

Randy

9 deaths as of this morning :(
I am all too familiar with the Red Line (used to work near Union Station) :(
My thoughts go out to the victims and their families

I bet the conductor of the second train was texting.

The news was on in the background at work, and at one point, it was stated that the conductor of the second train had asked to have that particular train repaired. Also, there's proof that she had tried to stop the train.

God bless the people & their families who were involved in this tragedy. May the injured heal quickly & perfectly.

Not Texting
 

The screw from the NTSB that studied the accident indicated that the Metro Driver's Cell phone was in her backpack, which is a perfectly acceptable place to have it according to the regulations.

The NTSB ran a test train to the location of the stopped train and the sensors in the track did not properly transmit that to the central computers. The moving train was running on automatic, which at that point the computer will run the train between 55 and 59 miles per hour. With the stopped train being invisible to the central computers, the computers would have not had any reason to reduce speed. The stopped train was around a slight curve, so it wouldn't have been seen a very long distance down the track. The moving train had both the manual and emergency brakes put on before the crash.

It is entirely possible that the driver of the moving train did everything that she was trained to do, and it still wasn't enough.

There are also issues that the paired cars in the front of the train were in the 1000 series (the cars that metro bought when the first started the system in the mid 1970s).

Are you sure the conducter could not see the first train? Trains don't exactly make sharp turns.

Even if the sensors were not working there still should not have been an accident. The trains are not totally automated and they have a driver in the train for that purpose.

At 55-60 mph and a 125 ft brake pattern, the driver did not apply the brakes until a second or two before impact.

If you are driving anything and you are going around a bend with a blind spot don't you slow down until you can see what is ahead of you?

Why are you so invested in it being driver error?

Probably because the train crashed, 9 people are dean and I think there is a good chance the driver was responsible.

Why are you so invested in the crash not being driver error?

What makes you say that the trains aren't totally automated at that point? Yes, the drivers can advance the trains slightly after they get into the station and things like that, but while it is in Automatic mode the computer does the speedup and slow down between stations normally.

What makes you think that the train could be stopped from 55 MPH in 125 ft. A Semi can't be stopped in that distance and the Metro trains are heavier than that.

The Operators don't do any braking round the bends normally. In automatic operations, the train operators can sit on their hands from the moment that they get the doors closed until the train comes to a stop at the next station. About all the actually do in that mode is talk to the controllers and honk the horn.

Randy

What is your experience that gives you more insight into this than the people that the NTSB has investigating?

I'm not. I haven't repeatedly posted in this thread making apparently unsubstantiated claims about the causes of the wreck.

Exactly.

DC locals are considering the train operator a hero right now. In DC, the metro operators rely on the computer system and their responsibility is to open the doors when the reach the stations and to announce the stations on the intercom. There's evidence that she administered the manual brake and the emergency brake, and her cell phone was safely zipped away in her backpack, following regulations. The Post is reporting that the computer's sensor in that track had not read the previous train, so the train that was stopped on the track was invisible to the computer on the train that crashed into it.

Here's a link supporting what tri deezy said: (Washington Post)

And another: (WashPost)

"When the investigation is completed, we will find she went beyond her job," Catoe said afterward. "I believe she saved lives. She was able to slow that train up before it crashed."

It's all so sad. She had a son in college, too. But props to her for trying to minimize the damage, even if the accident was unavoidable.

A hero? For what, hitting the brake too late? If the train was going 60 and the brakes were applied 125 ft before the crash then she only hit the brakes for a little over a second. If she was distracted and didn't hit the brake until a second before impact how does that make her a hero?

Maybe you should go offer your services to lead the rest of the investigation. It's obvious you understand it better than anyone else, and it may be the only way to make sure the driver doesn't escape blame. :rolleyes:

Well stated MysticCat. In fact it is the only way. Madmax will be just as guilty as the driver of the second train if he fails to lead the effort and succeed in proving that she is guilty!