A congressional probe of the oversight failures that led to the Jan. 12 incident on a Washington metro line, which claimed the life of a Virginia woman, revealed first responders may have been unaware that a stranded train full of passengers was still in the smoke-filled tunnel for a prolonged period of time due to major breakdowns in communications.
Lawmakers excoriated representatives from the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority and transit police for their failure to correct systemic problems that have repeatedly surfaced in reviews but have never been corrected.
“I’m stunned that WMATA even needed a federal agency to remind it that it needed a ventilation system in good working order,” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said during a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing Friday.
A joint hearing of the government operations and transportation subcommittees sought details from the day a tunnel near the L’Enfant Plaza metro station in downtown Washington filled with smoke while passengers on a train stuck inside were not evacuated for at least a half hour. As many as 84 passengers required treatment after inhaling harmful smoke.
Edward Mills, assistant fire chief with D.C. Fire and Emergency Services, said radio technology failed inside the tunnels and caused confusion when first responders arrived at L’Enfant.
Mills said rescuers saw an empty train on the platform at L’Enfant and were unsure if it was the only train in the smoke-filled area.
Once they were made aware a train containing passengers was still inside the tunnel, the first responders headed into the darkness despite the fact that electricity may still have been flowing through the rails, Mills testified. A breakdown in communications apparently prevented WMATA from communicating with the rescuers about whether the rails were live, putting everyone involved at risk.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., pressed witnesses from transit agencies about why no one was alerted to the potentially electrified tracks before first responders made the call to forge ahead anyway.
“How many people have to die before we can answer that question: Why didn’t that happen?” Meadows said.
Jackie Jeter, president of the union that represents many Washington transit workers, criticized the apathetic attitude toward safety that permeates the ranks of WMATA.
“The task of developing a safety culture has not been met,” Jeter said of the agency. “Most of our members are not sent to safety training until they make a mistake.”
The hearing was marked by emotional testimony from a survivor who shed new light on what took place inside one of the trapped metro cars Jan. 12.
Jonathan Rogers broke down in tears describing his attempts to perform CPR on Carol Glover, the Alexandria mother of two who died from the complications of smoke inhalation, during the final moments of her life.
Rogers also shared a cell phone video he had taken that afternoon showing dozens of passengers struggling to breath in a dark, hazy train car.
Several of the committee members questioned transit authorities as to why safety flaws revealed by a deadly 2009 collision on a different metro line had not yet been corrected.
“We knew about this as a problem years ago,” Connolly said. “What have we done to make sure our passengers are safe?”
