A man was fatally struck by a Metro train Wednesday morning after deliberately stepping on the tracks, Metro officials said.
A six-car Orange Line train headed in the direction of New Carrollton struck the man at West Falls Church-VT/UVA station at about 11:18 a.m., according to spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.
Metro officials had not yet identified the man, but did say he was a customer and not an employee. Eyewitnesses said the man got onto the track as the train was entering the station.
The man’s death was more bad news for an embattled transit system that’s been having a very bad summer and a miserable week.
On Tuesday, a Metro police officer died following a motorcycle accident near his home in Westminster, Md. The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office said Dennis Henley Jr. was on his way home from a training class when the motorcycle he was riding was struck by a pickup truck.
And on Sunday night, a 63-year-old Metro repairman was killed when he was struck by a ballast regulator, a large piece of equipment that spreads gravel onto the track bed. Michael Nash, a 21-year veteran of Metro, was working as a spotter as part of a crew replacing cross ties near the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro station.
Metro General Manager John Catoe ordered a “safety standdown” in response to Nash’s death that included postponing repair work and a mandated safety training refresher for Metro employees.
Though the deaths are unrelated, they are unwelcome news for an agency still reeling from 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.
“It does affect you emotionally,” Farbstein said.
The June 22 accident has led to intense scrutiny of Metro. The Examiner first reported that a Metro employee tested positive for drugs as part of an investigation into why a Green Line train that passed through five stations in late July was put together with too many cars to fit on station platforms.
And recent reports in The Examiner and elsewhere of near-miss collisions and of Metrobus drivers texting and reading behind the wheel have marred the transit system’s reputation.
