The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is a tri-jurisdictional government agency that operates rail and bus transit services. The Metro, as it is called, is funded by the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland.

Nine people were killed and many more passengers injured when two Washington Metro subway trains collided Monday afternoon June 21, 2009 in Washington, DC. Transit Authority Red Line between the Takoma and Fort Totten Metrorail stations. The National Transportation Safety Board (NHTSA) is investigating, but likely won’t have a report on the cause of the crash for many months. This is what we know.

Metro’s 112 train was the oldest in the fleet and was delivered to Metro sometime between 1975 and 1978. The train in question was being operated by an employee with approximately 3 months of experience. However, Metro 112 was usually controlled by a computer rather than the operator, unless the train was in manual mode. Metro 112 is reported to have been in “automatic mode” at the time of the collision, meaning the computer was operating the train, not the train operator on board. It is also reported that train 112’s emergency brake had been depressed, which could mean that the train operator tried to manually stop the train to avoid the collision. However, the stick could have been forced forward by body contact or other contact. The NTSB has also confirmed that Metro 112 was two months behind on scheduled brake maintenance.

The other information our lawyers are focusing on is that federal officials recommended that train 112 should have been replaced due to concerns about its age. Security guards warned Washington subway operators three years ago about the weaknesses of aging subway cars like the 112 train in terms of crashworthiness. The NTSB has also said that it told Washington Metro in 2006 that the car of its 1000 series trains, like train 112, was likely to unreasonably collapse in a collision endangering the safety of passengers and crew. .

Clearly, the research is currently focused on the on-board computers that control the speed and braking of the trains, the Metro track signaling system, which was specifically designed to prevent collisions like this, and on the age of the 112 train. , one of about 300 1000- series. We won’t know for months what was the cause, or multiple causes, of this deadly commuter train accident. However, it is already clear that this accident could have been prevented. Safety systems and procedures are designed to prevent an accident like this from happening. Clearly something went wrong. Remember that it was only 8 months ago that another commuter train in Los Angeles, California claimed the lives of 20 passengers. The operator in that case was operating a cell phone at the time of the collision.