D.C. Metro Subway Derails Passengers injured

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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AP20 hurt after D.C. subway train derails

By SARAH KARUSH, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 19 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A subway train derailed Sunday near downtown Washington, sending 20 people to the hospital and prompting the rescue of 60 people from a tunnel, officials said.

The accident happened at about 3:45 p.m. near the underground Mount Vernon Square station, which serves two lines beneath the Washington Convention Center, Metro spokeswoman Cathy Asato said. There were about 150 people on the train.

At least one person had a serious but not life-threatening injury, Asato said. The other injuries were mostly “bumps and bruises,” and one of those with minor injuries was pregnant.

Part of the six-car train had pulled into the station when the fifth car left the track and hit the tunnel wall, Asato said. All the cars remained upright.

Glass and metal were strewn through the tunnel, and the fifth car had significant damage, said Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein. The concrete tunnel wall also appeared to be damaged, but it was unclear how significant the wall damage was or whether the track was damaged.

About 60 people in the last two cars had to wait about 45 minutes for firefighters to reach them and escort them through the tunnel on a catwalk.

Passengers in the first four cars were able to exit on their own through the front two cars, which were already at the station platform, Asato said.

There was no fire, Asato said. An investigation was under way.

Witnesses said people started to panic when the six-car train began shaking, and some passengers began running to the back of the train.

“I was in a cab that actually shattered - the front part of it - those windows in between the two cars,” s

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Can be scary. Interesting that it was a rear car.

Way back in the early 70s I was on a NYC subway train that derailed. We were only running at about 20 mph when it occured when 2 rear cars derailed in the tunnel. Was interesting but not fun.

Anyone know if it was a track problem or the train itself that was the cause?

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Incident is still under investigation and the announcement this morning was that the Metro trains were running on those lines, but were running a bit slow in that area.

Metro has had a lot of safety incidents recently.

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According to an article the Washington Post on January 9, 2007, Metro has had five derailments since November 2003, only one of which was in a yard; three of the trains that derailed were carrying passengers. In addition during the same period an empty train rolled back into a train that was stopped at one of the stations. People were injured during these incidents but there were no deaths. The full article can be found on the Washington Post’s web site www.washingtonpost.com . In another article about the derailment today (January 10, 2007) the Post reports that the car that derailed on Sunday, January 7 was in the shop as late as last Friday.

The NTSB has been critical of Metro’s safety record. During the last year there were three incidents where four Metro track workers were struck and killed by trains.