An out-of-service train struck two Metro workers Thursday morning, killing one and sending the other to the hospital with serious injuries.
The four-car Yellow Line train on its way to the Alexandria Rail Yard hit two workers as they inspected an elevated track between the Huntington and Eisenhower Avenue Metrorail stations. Fairfax Fire and Rescue responded to the scene after receiving a 911 call around 9:30 a.m., department spokesman Chris Schaff said.
“One patient had expired at the time they arrived,” Schaff said. “The second patient was removed from the tracks and taken to a waiting helicopter and airlifted to Inova Fairfax Hospital.”
Metro identified the worker who died as Leslie A. Cherry, a 29-year employee from Maryland. The injured employee, who was not identified, began working for the transit system in April.
Mark Rozenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Metro procedures allowed the “track walkers” to be on active tracks only after receiving permission from a dispatcher.
The dispatcher, before giving permission, would alert drivers of trains on those tracks that the workers would be out there.
The NTSB planned to interview the dispatcher and driver Thursday night and review voice and data records of communications and train speeds on Friday morning.
“They have been operating for 30 years and have had relatively few accidents, but this is third one in 13 months and that is unacceptable,” Rozenker said.
The Huntington and Eisenhower Avenue stations were closed for about five hours after the incident while Metro and the NTSB conducted preliminary investigations. A final report will not be ready for “months,” Rozenker said.
Thursday’s incident is Metro’s third worker fatality since October 2005. In May, a train hit a worker at the Dupont Circle Metrorail station. The NTSB has not finalized its report on that incident.
Human errorhas been blamed for the October fatality when a train sideswiped a maintenance worker as he bent over to pick up a tool he had dropped on the tracks near the Braddock Road station.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
