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The Present => DC Transit Today => Newsroom => Topic started by: 79MetroExtraMD on June 22, 2009, 05:48:19 PM

Title: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: 79MetroExtraMD on June 22, 2009, 05:48:19 PM
Updated: 19:11
Source: NBC 4
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Metro-Trains-Collide-Between-Takoma-Fort-Totten.html (http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Metro-Trains-Collide-Between-Takoma-Fort-Totten.html)
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: BladensburgB2 on June 22, 2009, 07:37:16 PM
LETS JUST KEEP THE WMATA FAMILY IN OUR PRAYERS
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: C40LF_2464 on June 22, 2009, 08:10:18 PM
Dang i left there about 30 min before this happend im glad i wasnt on that train or even near it . I pray that everybody is safe and alright. Im so pissed right now.
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: Tritransit Area on June 22, 2009, 08:25:01 PM
I'm keeping every passenger on those trains in my prayers.  You can't imagine how shaken I am by this...well, DE42LFA may since he just went through there - I have ridden that section of track between those two stations regularly my entire life.  My "DC Home" is in that area...my heart goes out to all of the passengers and their families....
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: Tritransit Area on June 22, 2009, 08:26:41 PM
Also, another Rohr involved....and it telescopes quite a bit.  Are the other cars stronger than the Rohrs?
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: WES on June 22, 2009, 10:19:12 PM
Well unfortunate news, at about 10pm, 6 killed over 70 injured and they are still searching for bodies.  I first heard about the accident about 7pm when my employee had it on his phone.  It's so sad and for us oldheads reminds of the crash years ago, the same day of the Air Florida crash.

Six lives are lost forever, hope that there won't be anymore.
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: Antozilla on June 22, 2009, 11:39:59 PM
From listening to CATOE, it looks like ATC is involved. 
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: NewFlyer9736BCT on June 23, 2009, 12:43:10 AM
It's one of those things where you have a family member go to work, kiss them goodbye, notice they're not coming home on time, turning on the news, and finding out they're seriously injured or dead...now that's just sad. My prayers go out to the families affected by this. Fortunately for me, my mom takes the west side of the red line, so I knew she wasn't in the crash, but still...pretty scary, I'm never sitting in an end car again if i'm gonna go on a single-track portion.

Quote from: Antozilla on June 22, 2009, 11:39:59 PM
From listening to CATOE, it looks like ATC is involved. 

and ATC would be...?
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: Antozilla on June 23, 2009, 07:40:10 AM
Automatic Train Control.
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: OrionFlyer on June 23, 2009, 07:42:03 AM
And I was at Fort Totten yesterday.  This accident reminds me of the Light Rail accident at BWI in 2000. I hope this never happens again. My prayers go out to all the families that have been affected.
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: NewFlyerGuy on June 23, 2009, 10:49:40 AM
Id hate for this tragedy to bring me back to this site, Ive been really busy lately and my prayers go out for those who was on this train as my sister and mother was on the train and I am truly gratefull that they are alright as with the people who are on this site. There is no absolutely way that she couldnt see that train. Ive been through there many of times and that is just insane! Unless she was texting,went suddenly blind, or suffered a heart attack she could have just pressed that big red button! But even is she was using the ATC she still can stop.
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: Tritransit Area on June 23, 2009, 07:01:03 PM
I am so grateful that you sister and mother are okay.  I can only imagine what it would have been like to be on that train.  I have also ridden that section many times beforehand over my 22 (almost 23!) years, and I've been shaken up by the "that could've been me" syndrome.  After all, my family lives right in that area, and I use Fort Totten & Takoma all of the time.

Looking at the picture, the train was coming around a curve (albeit slight), which surely cuts down on visibility.  At the high rate of speed the trains tend to travel in that section, coming quickly around a bend to come across an immobile object, the reaction time can be minimal.  Especially when you expect the train to do its job in keeping you and your passengers safe.  In fact, reports state that the emergency button had been pressed. 
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: WMATAGMOAGH on June 27, 2009, 11:52:39 PM
1079 confirmed as the lead car on train 112 in a very moving article about being in the first car of that train and the initial rescue effort:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702417.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009062702498 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702417.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009062702498)
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: C40LF_2464 on June 28, 2009, 10:45:26 AM
WOW! That us an amazing story there. Thanks for the link Oren. Next thing you know, they will make a short movie about this tradegy.
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: LandoverDivision on June 28, 2009, 03:58:47 PM
Quote from: WMATAGMOAGH on June 27, 2009, 11:52:39 PM
1079 confirmed as the lead car on train 112 in a very moving article about being in the first car of that train and the initial rescue effort:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702417.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009062702498 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702417.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009062702498)

If you have looked at the news a lot, you would've saw the number of the car. I been knew it was 1079.
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: WMATAGMOAGH on June 28, 2009, 04:13:55 PM
Quote from: landoverdivision on June 28, 2009, 03:58:47 PM
Quote from: WMATAGMOAGH on June 27, 2009, 11:52:39 PM
1079 confirmed as the lead car on train 112 in a very moving article about being in the first car of that train and the initial rescue effort:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702417.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009062702498 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702417.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009062702498)

If you have looked at the news a lot, you would've saw the number of the car. I been knew it was 1079.

I only have access to streaming radio and newspapers from here.  Also, while it seemed clear from the photos that 1079 was the lead car, this was the first time a media outlet confirmed that suspicion that I know of.
Title: Re: BREAKING NEWS: Metro Trains Collide Between Takoma, Fort Totten
Post by: WMATAGMOAGH on July 01, 2009, 05:13:26 PM
Here is the latest:

Investigators: Repair Work Preceded Deadly Metro Crash

By Lena H. Sun and Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 5:06 PM

Five days before last week's deadly Red Line accident, Metro did maintenance on a component of a train control system designed to prevent crashes, and the system's circuitry failed to work properly after the work was complete, investigators said today.

According to the statement issued by the National Transportation Safety Board, a track circuit in the crash area "periodically lost its ability to detect trains after June 17." Today's findings raise questions about how Metro tested equipment and monitored its automated control systems before the June 22 accident.

Last week, federal investigators said they found "anomalies" in the same track circuit in the crash area. They also conducted tests that suggest that the striking train in the accident might not have received information that another was stopped ahead. Nine people, including the train operator, died; 80 were injured.

Metro's rail chief Dave Kubicek said in an interview today that Metro technicians replaced the component, known as a weezy-bond, a device that is about 18 inches square and six inches high that is mounted on the wooden cross ties that secure the rails. The device is part of the track circuit and plays a key role in the protection system designed to detect whether trains are present on the tracks. After the installation, personnel tested the equipment. "Everything tested okay upon installation," he said.

In the five days before the accident, however, the track circuit was not working properly. It sent out "flickering" signals, alternately sending information saying a train occupied that stretch of track, or that stretch of track had no train. Kubicek said the flickering began shortly after the repair work.

The flickering of the track circuit could have been visible by controllers in Metro's downtown Operations Control Center, but only if a controller happened to be looking at something the size of a "button on a BlackBerry" at exactly the right time, Kubicek said.

Metro personnel have been testing all of Metro's nearly 3,000 track circuits. They have inspected more than 65 percent of them and found no other problems, Kubicek said. "It's an anomaly. It's very, very unsual and we are going through the rest of the system. We have not found anything on the other alignments that duplicates what we're seeing here."

Federal investigators have concluded the on-scene phase of the investigation, except for a signals group that is continuing to examine the train control system at the crash scene and at Metro's Operations Control Center.