Man in wheelchair, fight victim injured on Metrorail platforms
By: Elinor Flynn
Special to Examiner
June 30, 2009
Two men were injured in separate subway station platform incidents Tuesday morning, adding to the list of recent Metro troubles.
The first incident grew out of a fight, officials said. Around 6:40 a.m., two men began to argue on the platform of the Gallery Place/Chinatown station, and one shoved the other into an approaching train, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.
The pushed man was taken away in an ambulance, with injuries to his arm and hand. Transit police are still looking for the man who assaulted him.
Four hours later, a man in a wheelchair fell almost four feet onto the trackbed after exiting a train at Metro’s Southern Avenue station in Prince George’s County. The man suffered non-life-threatening head injuries, according to Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel. He was taken to a hospital for treatment.
It was not clear how the man ended up on the tracks of the Green Line station. Taubenkibel said the man may have fallen asleep after exiting the train, rolled off the platform and dropped onto the tracks.
The track heading outbound toward Branch Avenue was closed for nearly an hour, and trains shared a single track between the Naylor Road and Southern Avenue stations.
The mishaps added to a string of recent Metro problems. A man was killed Monday afternoon when he jumped in front of a train near the Forest Glen station.
And nine people were killed and scores injured in a two-train crash June 22. On Tuesday, Metro General Manager John Catoe said the system may operate its trains manually for a year or more while investigators determine the cause of Metro’s deadliest crash.
