From the DC area’s biggest news voice, WTOP:
WASHINGTON – An inbound Metro train smashed into the back of another at the height of the Monday evening rush hour, killing at least nine people and injuring scores of others in Metro’s deadliest ever subway accident.
D.C. Fire and EMS says rescue workers located three more bodies in the wreckage late Monday night. All three were declared dead at the scene.
Experts familiar with Metro’s operating systems tell The Washington Post operator error and failure of the signal system likely caused the deadly crash.
Reports from friends I have down that way suggest that on the order of 80 people were transported to hospitals, though the way of it usually is that the official number will be somewhat less. The motorman in the trailing train was among the dead.
I tend to agree with the report about the systems failure. There has to be some sort of combo of op error and systems failure at work here. Even assuming operator failure, the system shouldn’t have allowed the crash, being designed to avoid such things.
As you may imagine, the crash scene is still being dismantaled and investigated. I’m getting confused reports on today’s schedule, but the upshot appears to be that they’re getting trains by the accident site, and they’ll be running limited service on the RedLine today. However, officially, they’re suggesting alternate transporation.
By the way, the link above has an array of photos from the site.
