WASHINGTON – Transport authorities in Washington DC had been warned to upgrade older subway cars before a crash on Monday that killed nine people, investigators have said.
Federal officials investigating the crash, the worst in the 33-year history of Washington’s Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA), said a 2006 warning to replace or modernise older subway cars like those involved in the crash went unheeded.
“We recommended to WMATA to either retrofit those cars or phase them out of the fleet. They have not been able to do that and our recommendation was not addressed,” National Transportation Safety Board spokeswoman Debbie Hersman said at a news conference at the scene of the accident.
Seventy-six people were taken to hospitals after one train slammed into another that was stopped on above-ground tracks during the afternoon rush hour, Washington mayor Adrian Fenty said. He said there were seven confirmed deaths. The Washington Post said that figure rose to nine after more bodies were taken from the wreckage.
One person remained in critical condition, Mr Fenty said.
The operator of the moving train was among those killed in the crash, which drove one train on top of the other. It remained there yesterday morning as workers attempted to clear the wreckage.
The National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency, had urged the Metro system to replace older subway cars or upgrade their crashworthiness following a 2004 accident that injured 20 passengers, federal records show.
Metro general manager John Catoe said changes to the rail cars would be made if needed.
“Any car that strikes another vehicle at a certain rate of speed and with a certain amount of weight, you’re going to have some major damage,” he said.
The crash occurred on the busy Red Line on a relatively lengthy stretch of track near the city’s northeastern border with Maryland, where trains can build up a considerable speed.
Both trains were heading south into the city. The leading train had stopped because it was waiting for another to leave the Fort Totten station, officials said.
It was unclear why the second train had not received the stop signal as well, or why the operator did not manually stop her train when she saw the blocked tracks ahead, officials said.
Passengers on the second train said it did not slow down at all. “There was no attempt at braking. We just slammed into whatever we slammed into,” passenger Theroza Doshi said.
Mr Catoe recently told the US Congress that the Washington Metro system needed more than $7 billion (€5 billion) to keep its fleet of trains and buses in a state of good repair through to 2020. He said it needed to replace one-third of its rail cars. – ( Reuters)