A Metro employee was struck and killed by a train Sunday while working on the track just outside the Dupont Circle Metro Station, the second subway worker to die while on the job in less than a year.
The employee was hit at 10:16 a.m. in the tunnel about 50 yards from the station entrance by a Red Line train headed to Glenmont, said Candace Smith, Metro spokeswoman. The worker, whose body was found under the last car, was performing routine maintenance on the interlocking system, the equipment that switches trains from one track to another.
The victim’s identity had not been released and no cause had been determined as of Sunday afternoon.
The Dupont Circle and Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan stations were closed for much of the day. Shuttle buses ran between Farragut North and Cleveland Park during the initial investigation. A more in-depth examination of the incident will include the National Transportation Safety Board, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Metro Transit and D.C. police.
The employee’s death is Metro’s second in seven months.
On Oct. 1, 47-year-old Michael Waldron was sideswiped by a Yellow Line train near the Braddock Road Metro Station while bending down to pick up a piece of equipment. He died later that month.
Metro later ruled that human error was the primary cause of Waldron’s death, and several people were disciplined or dismissed. The maintenance supervisor, who was fired, failed to contact operations control before his team approached the track work area, Metro said, and the train operator did not follow procedure with regard to sounding the train horn.
In response to Waldron’s death, Metro said it would retrain thousands of employees, re-evaluate speed restrictions and require workers to carry flags.
Other Metro deaths
» May 11: Pedestrian struck and killed by Metrobus in Charles County.
» June 10, 2001: Metro Transit Officer Marlon Morales shot in the line of duty.
» Multiple suicides involving people stepping onto the tracks.
