Oversight Committee probes Washington Metro's safety gaps

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.