At approximately 5 p.m. on Monday, June 22nd, two trains crashed on the packed commuter metro Red Line near Tacoma Park, Md.
The accident is the deadliest in the D.C.’s Metro’s 33-year history. Nine people were killed and least 76 people were injured and transported to hospitals.
After New York City, Washington’s rapid transit system, called the Metro, is the second-busiest urban rail system in the country. An average of 800,000 people use it each day. During President Obama’s inauguration, more the 1,200,000 people used it. The system has been in a constant growth mode as the Metropolitan D.C. area has exploded into the suburbs.
Since the crash, there has been extensive debate as to whether or not the crash was due to a human or a mechanical error. Initially, reports attributed the accident to a human error on the part of the conductor, who was killed. After further examination, some of the cars were found to have mechanical faults.
District of Columbia’s Mayor Adrian Fenty has said the crash dramatizes the need for the rail system to be upgraded because some cars were found to have mechanical defects and others were overdue to be inspected. Federal transportation inspectors say it will require a minimum of six months until the reason for the crash is ascertained. Fenty said federal safety investigators are still searching for the cause of the crash and there’s no question the issue of rail car safety is a valid one.
The mayor is adamant that the transportation system must protect more people with stronger cars. The governments of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia operate the system jointly.
According to the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, metro trains in Washington will be manually operated by operators until further notice. This way, the train operator has full control of the train’s starts, stops and its speed. The operator must operate within specific speed parameters set by the signals or the train will automatically shut down.
Many people are questioning the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s liability. Many feel this accident could have been easily avoided. They don’t remember this is only the second accident where there were fatalities in the history of this rail transit system.
Do you think this will be a wake up call for cities throughout the world to institute more assiduous inspection systems?
Karen Fawcett is president of BonjourParis.
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Interestingly, I got on the metro Monday night and was not in the least bit fearful. And I have continued to take it back and forth to work every day this week. i can take the train and risk a once in several years accident, or I can drive through the DC traffic where there are accidents daily – and on the Beltway, deaths – it seems – weekly.
There has been an update that the problem was because the metro rails weren’t aligned and there wasn’t a warning or stop signal. The metro train operator did use the hand-brake. More information to come. Karen
Could the crash have been averted?
97.9999% of the time you could take off and land airplanes without human intervention The computers would keep the airplanes apart and fly them from place to place without the need for human intervention. The pilots are aboard to handle that 2.0001% of the time that judgment and skill are required.
Same with runing the trains – 99% of the time the computers work just fine – and during complex rush our periods probably work the system better than humans could. Humans make mistakes too – as the air crash statistics show.
Accidents are part of the human condition – to err is human, to really screw up inexplicably takes a computer . ..
The train issue is not about the tracks being aligned – it seems that one of the signals (circuits) that “warm” to “autopilot” was not working. They tried it at the same spot yesterday and the signal did not detect the dummy train sitting in the exact same spot as the stationary train on Monday.
The have now begun to test each of the several hundred signals on tha tracks and will run manually until the testing is done and they are assured all the signals are working.
DVTA – thank you for the updates. You beat me to the keyboard. thank you.
The fact that the Washington METRO (WMATA) has gotten as far as it has is a near-miracle, building a 103(±) mile heavy rail transit system in 35 years in one of the most contentious cities in the world, then running it really without major incident since 1978. To do anything, Metro’s board with its six voting members needs at least one vote from each of its major constituents: Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, all of which have divergent goals and priorities. They all have to kick in to subsidize rail transportation in the area, plus paying to make up the difference between fare box collections and costs for bus service in their state or District. WMATA has no dedicated source of revenue; it depends on the individual jurisdictions to “kick in”, for example to buy replacement rail cars for the overdue-for-replacement Rohr cars involved in this accident and otherwise maintain the system. Yes, nine people were killed in this accident; how many were killed in auto accidents in the Washington region served by METRO since the last accident involving multiple passenger fatalities on Friday the 13th of January 1982? Having led the Office of Management Information Services at METRO for a number of years, I left almost 20 years ago, but I’m still proud of that system and my contribution to its success. It’s a very classy system, an icon for our nation’s Capital that often deserved better than it has gotten from fiscally stressed local politicians. Perhaps this incident will lead to much-needed and permanent reforms.
As the former Deputy Chief of CALOSHA (1974-1983) We inspected the SF Muni Railway System usually as the result of fatalities, Over & over each time the problem was directly related to Management errors because of lack of proper training. In 1976 CALOSHA as the result of a double fatalities we learned that the Senior Management at a car barn had never done any training of workers in lockout procedures. They claimed that they didn’t do training because”it was too time consuming”
In 1980 a Metro car manfactured in Italy caused an operator to die and over thirty passengers were injured because no one inspected the track signal coils which when operating properly sensed a Metro car and fed complex signals to both the operator and Central Control.There were no inspections because Management never trained enough workers to inspect the entire system on a regular basis.
I helped the DA in SF to prosecute three Senior management officials for failing to provide the proper procedures to employees.
The old motto said ” Deferred training is no training”
Mike: The metro that was launched under your auspices is more than a “classy” system and you have every right be incredibly proud of your contribution.
Coincidentally, I lived in DC when the Metro was inaugurated. My husband was a city planner and we fought hard to have the metro come to Georgetown and other parts of NW Washington. People who house hunt want to be near the metro. But some people were short-sited and didn’t want their neighborhoods too accessible to “strangers.” There were never stops in those areas because of the terrain not being conducive — or so it was said. I’m not a geologist.
The DC metro has always been a political football between D.C., MD and VA. Hopefully this accident will be more than a wake-up call for the government agencies that are responsible for doling out funds.
Your group did an incredible job and how I would prefer to be riding the metro than sitting in traffic and witnessing more car accidents than I should when I’m in DC rather than when I am in Paris.
Let’s hope “this incident will lead to much-needed and permanent reforms.”
Incidentally Karen Fawcett properly proposes the point; that will metro systems around the world learn from this incident that they do more evaluating of what their systems are properly working to prevent this kind of accident !!