By Dorothy Rowley
AFRO Satff Writer
D.C. Fire personnel can be seen taking the dead off the Metro train. (Photo by Khalid Naji-Allah)
|
|
(June 24, 2009) - A late-day commute Monday aboard a metro rail system in northeast Washington, D.C., turned into a nightmare for passengers and crew members after one train plowed into the back of another. The crash killed nine people and injured scores of others.
The deadly crash occurred at the height of the 5 p.m. rush hour on the busy Red Line, as the six-car train headed toward the Shady Grove station in Gaithersburg, Md.
The incident has been described as the worst to occur in the history of the 33-year-old rail system.
On Tuesday morning, Mayor Adrian Fenty, accompanied by rail officials, confirmed the death toll. The mayor said rescue workers had worked feverishly to identify all of the dead victims and to notify their families.
"With the ... confirmed fatalities, it is my preliminary understanding that this would be the deadliest accident in the history of our Metro train transit system," Fenty said.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty (right) and D.C. Chief of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, Dennis L. Rubin. (Photo by Cheryl Granville)
|
Included among the fatalities was a 23-year-old mother of two sons, and a woman who operated one of the trailing trains.
The operator was identified by Metro spokesman Steve Taubenkibel as Jeanice McMillan of Springfield, Va. The young mother was identified as LaVonda Nicole King.
According to King’s aunt, Lolitha Woodson, the young woman’s body was among the last pulled at around 3 a.m. on Tuesday from the wreckage. “We don’t know which train she was on,” Woodson told the AFRO. “But she had been on her way home from work to pick up her two boys,” ages 4 and 2.
Woodson said King’s mother is taking her daughter’s death hard.
“It’s shocking, very emotional,” she said. “The whole family is trying to grasp what happened,” Woodson continued, adding that the last time she saw her niece was this past Saturday at a family picnic.
At least two people among the 76 injured were seriously hurt.
While some were transported to a nearby hospital, others walked away unharmed, though shaken and in disbelief of the resulting carnage. One was a 14-year-old girl who was treated at Howard University Hospital’s (HUH) intensive care unit for two broken legs.
She remained in critical condition as of Wednesday.
Jamie Jiao, 20, of Vienna, Va., was also among the passengers. He told the AFRO he had been on his way home from work when the collision occurred and that although he was bruised from head to toe, he considered himself lucky. “After the train hit, I ended up on the roof of the train in front of me,” said Jiao, a student at the University of Virginia. Jiao said that following treatment at HUH he was released.
“My injuries weren’t that serious. I got cuts and scratches everywhere but I didn’t break anything,” he said.
The derailment occurred between the Takoma Park and Fort Totten stations after one of the trains had stopped and was waiting for a train ahead of it to move out.
Officials said the first train had stopped for an unknown reason, when the second train crashed into it from behind. The front end of the second train jack-knifed into the air, falling of the first one.
Scene of Monday's deadly train collision. (Photo by Cheryl Granville)
|
Sabrina Webber, a 45-year-old real estate agent who lives in the neighborhood where the derailment occurred, told reporters she raced to the scene after hearing a loud boom reminiscent of thunder. She said the first rescuers to arrive had to use the “jaws of life” to pry open a wire fence along the rail line to get to the train.
More than 200 firemen from the District and surrounding Virginia and Maryland areas were dispatched to the scene. District of Columbia Fire Chief Dennis Ruben said crews had to take huge pieces of steel and metal from the wreckage in order to disengage it and check all areas where other victims could have been trapped.
Officials said however, that once the trains have been completely separated, there’s the possibility that more bodies could be uncovered.
Nevertheless, Leah Britton, 15, who works near the Fort Totten station, said she, along with a lot of her peers, are upset up by the incident because they rely on the rail for transportation to their jobs.
“I’m scared now because I ride the trains just about everyday,” Britton said. “I guess I’ll get my mom to pick me up until I get over this.”
Stranded passengers on a Metro bus after the crash. (Photo by Cheryl Granville)
|
An eyewitness at the scene of the wreck. (Photo by Cheryl Granville)
|
Among those to express condolences were President Barack Obama. and Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-MD). “Michelle and I were saddened by the terrible accident in northeast Washington today,” Obama said Monday in statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends affected by this tragedy.”
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) , like the president, also expressed gratitude for the efforts of the emergency crew workers. “I join the entire Washington Metropolitan area in expressing my profound sorrow at the loss of life and injury on Metro's Red Line,” she said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims and their families who have been affected by this tragedy.”
Edwards added that she, along with other officials, was waiting “in the days and weeks ahead” on further details surrounding the cause of the derailment.
A subway crash that occurred in the District in January 1982 killed three people. In May 2006, a Metro worker was struck and killed by a train -- and six months later, two more rail employees were killed after being struck by an out-of-service train.
Another incident occurred in 2007 that sent 20 people to the hospital. Each of the incidents raised concern among federal transportation officials.
Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said this week’s crash occurred in an area with a significant distance between rail stations in which trains are allowed to travel at higher speeds. She said the trains' devices that record operating speeds and commands are being turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which has made recommendations to various rail jurisdiction, including the District government, to improve rail safety standards.
Said NTSB spokeswoman Debbie Hersman during a Good Morning America interview, “We know accidents are going to happen but that there must be a better system to prevent them.”
Emergency Medical Services personnel at the scene of the crash. (Photo by Cheryl Granville)
|