Washington Metro Commuter Train Accident Raises Questions of Passenger Safety

The Washington Metropolitan Location Transit Authority (WMATA) is a tri-jurisdictional federal government company that operates coach and bus transit solutions. The Metro, as it is identified as, is funded by the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland.

9 people today had been killed and numerous additional passengers were being injured when two Washington Metro subway trains collided on June 21, 2009, Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C.  A person commuter, regarded as Metro train 112, crashed into the again of a further stationary commuter on the Metropolitan Place Transit Authority’s Red line amongst the Takoma and Fort Totten Metrorail stations. The National Transportation Security board (NHTSA) is investigating but will not very likely have a report on what triggered the collision for several months. In this article is what we do know.

Metro educate 112 was the oldest in the fleet and was sent to Metro sometime involving 1975 to 1978.  The subject prepare was being operated by an personnel with 3 or so months of experience.  Nevertheless, Metro 112 was commonly controlled by a computer system as opposed to the operator, unless of course the teach was in a guide method. It is remaining documented that Metro 112 was in “automatic mode” at the time of collision that means that the pc was running the train, not the educate operator on board.  It is also getting noted that the emergency brake on prepare 112 experienced been frustrated, which could imply that the train operator tried to manually cease the coach to stay clear of collision.  The lever could have, however, been pressured ahead by body speak to or other speak to. The NTSB has also confirmed that Metro 112 was two months overdue for scheduled brake servicing.

The other piece of info our attorneys are focusing on is that federal officers had recommended that coach 112 really should have been replaced since of concerns about its age. Safety watchdogs warned Washington’s metro operators 3 several years in the past about weaknesses in growing older subway vehicles like educate 112 on issues of crashworthiness. The NTSB has also claimed that it explained to Washington Metro in 2006 that the carriage in its 1000-series trains, like educate 112,  was very likely to unreasonably crumple in an collision jeopardizing the basic safety of travellers and crew.

Obviously, the investigation is presently concentrated on the onboard pcs that manage the trains velocity and braking, the Metro monitor sign procedure which was exclusively developed to stop collisions such as this 1, and on the age of teach 112, one of roughly 300 1000-collection. We will not know for months what the lead to, or multiple leads to, of this fatal commuter coach accident ended up.  Nevertheless, it is currently very clear that this incident could have been avoided.  The basic safety methods and methods are designed to preclude and accident like this from ever developing.  A thing obviously went erroneous. Remember it was only 8 months in the past that yet another commuter prepare in Los Angles California claimed the life of 20 travellers.  The operator in that occasion was functioning a mobile mobile phone at the time of the collision.