A crowded Metro train derailed Friday morning just north of the Farragut North station on the Red Line, causing what emergency responders described as ‘very minor’ injuries to three passengers but serious delays to commuters who tried to return to work for the first time in days.
The six-car train carrying 345 passengers had just left the Farragut North station headed in the direction of Shady Grove at 10:13 a.m. when the front wheels of the front car came off the track in a section known as a ‘pocket track,’ which is often used in turning trains around. The first car derailed.
‘There was a bump, a shaking bump,’ said passenger Ubah Aden, 36, of Alexandria who was headed to her job as an academic adviser at American University. ‘The conductor said ‘I think we derailed.’ There was a huge sigh.’
Metro officials on the scene said all the passengers were moved to the rear four cars of the train. Those cars then were separated from the front two to allow the four-car train to return to the platform to unload the passengers.
But when they were jammed into the four cars, Aden said, that’s when passengers who had otherwise been calm and even joking with each other got serious. It was even more crowded and hot, with no air running as they waited to move.
‘I was one of the people really grasping for air,’ she said. ‘There was a panic about the air I felt very claustrophobic.’
But after a few minutes, the operator turned on the engine of the now-shortened train and the air flow resumed. The passengers were taken back to Farragut North, where officials said many of them headed back onto another Metro train to get their jobs unharmed but late after spending more than an hour trapped.
One injured passenger was taken to nearby George Washington University Hospital for what D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin called bumps and bruises. The other two refused treatment, he said.
Above ground, Farragut Square was shut down for much of the morning, packed with fire trucks and a mass casualty unit prepared for the worst.
Metro ran shuttle buses between its Dupont Circle and Gallery Place stations for nearly two hours. The Farragut North station was reopened at 12:11 p.m.
But riders across the Red Line faced delays, compounded by the limited service following the record-breaking snow storms.
Trains will be restricted to a top speed of 25 mph between Dupont Circle and Farragut North on Friday while Metro workers investigate the derailment and remove the derailed train.
In March, a derailed train trapped 84 passengers in a train tunnel for more than an hour, the fourth derailment in less than two months. None had serious injuries. But a January 2007 derailment injured 23 riders and led officials to call for improvements to the system.
Metro officials said they notified the Tri-State Oversight Committee and the National Transportation Safety Board of the latest incident.
The NTSB said it is going to investigate the case, the board’s fourth investigation into a Metro accident within the past nine months.
Staff writer Alan Suderman contributed to this report.
