Metro trains crash in West Falls Church Rail Yard
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
November 30, 2009
Metrorail on Sunday was reeling from yet another crash, this one occurring early in the morning at the West Falls Church Rail Yard when one train struck the rear of a parked train, injuring three employees and derailing two cars.
The three Metro employees suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the 4:37 a.m. Orange Line crash, Metro said. The operator of the striking six-car train and two employees who were cleaning the parked six-car train were taken to a hospital.
No passengers were on board.
The incident was the latest black mark for the area's transit provider, which has been under heavy scrutiny since a June 22 Red Line crash that killed nine. Its leaders have maintained that the system is safe.
The striking train, No. 902, was the last train pulled into the rail yard Sunday morning, Metro said, adding that the speed inside the yard is typically no more than 15 mph. All Metro trains are operated manually, and have been since the June 22 crash.
The yet unidentified operator has been a Metro employee since May 2007 and a train operator since November 2008. He was on the job beyond the scheduled end of his 10-plus-hour shift -- 5:55 p.m. Saturday to 4:15 a.m. Sunday -- when the wreck occurred, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. He will undergo standard drug and alcohol testing as part of the investigation.
Each train consisted of two 5000 Series cars, two 3000 Series cars and two 1000 Series cars -- the type the National Transportation Safety Board has deemed unsafe.
All of the rail cars suffered some damage in the crash and the two 1000 series cars derailed, Metro said. The derailed cars and a series 3000 car are so damaged they cannot be repaired. The total cost for those three cars is about $9 million Metro said.
The NTSB and Metro's Tri-State Oversight Committee were notified.
Metro has struggled to maintain rider confidence this year in the face of serious, even deadly incidents on the rails, on buses and in stations.
"Pretty sure every single person who rides Metro wants to know the same thing," Karl Johnson wrote on Moving Momentarily blog. "What is wrong? Why is 2009 the year of deaths, collisions, lateness and just disaster after disaster."
It is Metro's responsibility to have a "strong safety culture," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the pro-transit group Coalition for Smarter Growth. But at the same, he said, statistics demonstrate that Metro "is many times safer than driving" in the D.C. area.
