Metro worker struck, killed by equipment

Michael Nash, a 21-year veteran of Metro, was working as part of a crew replacing cross ties near the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro station when he was struck by a ballast regulator, a large piece of equipment that spreads gravel onto the track bed.

Nash, of Silver Spring, worked as a spotter, whose job was to both tell the machine’s operator where the crews were working and to clear rocks from circuits and boards, Metro General Manager John Catoe said at a Monday news conference. Nash was midway through his shift when he was struck at about 9:50 p.m.

Catoe said the agency had not identified any equipment failure, and that “there is no indication here that the operator did not perform their job correctly.”

“Something, obviously, went terribly wrong,” Catoe said.

Nash was the first track maintenance worker to die in an on-the-job accident since November 2006, when a train outside the Eisenhower Avenue station in Alexandria struck and killed two track walkers.

Monday’s mishap comes at a time when Metro’s safety standards are under intense scrutiny following the worst crash in the transit system’s history in June, in which a Red Line train smashed into another near the Fort Totten station, killing nine people and injuring more than 70.

Because Monday’s crash involved track repair equipment, and not a passenger train, it will not be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, said NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz.

“The circumstances are such that we don’t feel we would be the proper people to investigate it,” Lopatkiewicz said.

Catoe announced a “safety stand-down” in response to the crash, postponing until Thursday scheduled track work not related to the Fort Totten crash, ordering employees into a safety training refresher, and increasing the number of safety checks at maintenance sites.

A man who answered the phone at Nash’s home declined comment.

[email protected]