The number of dead is now up to nine people in the crash between two metro trains on the Red line near the Washington D.C./Maryland border. The number of injured is at 70. The crash happened in north-east Washington D.C. between Fort Totten and Takoma. Evidently one train was sitting still on the track waiting for another train to clear the station up ahead (Fort Totten) when another train plowed into it from behind. Fort Totten serves as a stop for both the Red line and the Green line (map).
The impact was so bad that the trailing train jumped the track and landed on top the other train.
The death toll includes the operator of the trailing train, Jeanice McMillan of Springfield, Virginia.
The accident happened near 5:00 p.m., the height of rush hour in the Washington D.C. area. I can only imagine the trains were packed with commuters when the accident happened. Considering how many people were on both trains, along with the force of the impact, it’s a miracle the death toll isn’t much higher.
Lee B.
/ June 23, 2009I’m not a big fan of these systems, but ride them when in DC or NYC on business. Is a tragedy- hopefully the cause is found and this sort of tragedy never happens again.
Lee B.
/ June 23, 2009PS- too bad Jon and Kate weren’t on this- while the kids were at the sitter’s of course. And yeah, I know how sophomoric and uncouth that is.
Rick
/ June 24, 2009I used to ride the subways in NY when I worked in field service, but only in the colder months of the year. In the summer time it was just too hot down there. When we go into D.C. to do the tourist stuff, we always take the metro. The only reason we do it is because we can park for free at the Shady Grove stop. That’s only on the weekends though.
It doesn’t save any time. Also when I was doing field service I would have to go down to the National Geographic photo lab quite a bit. I would clock the amount of time it took to ride the metro and compare that to the time it took to drive. They took the same amount of time.