Both of the above are going out in large amounts to the families, friends, neighbors and co-workers of the nine (as of this writing) souls who lost their lives on Metro's Red Line. This is a true tragedy and one that some people saw coming because of some of the issues that are now coming to light and will continue to be revealed in the days and weeks ahead. Things like maintenance records, engineering reports on these old workhorses, data from track sensors and of course the testimony of those on or near the trains at the time of collision.
The one piece of real interesting information that has come out is that riders on the trailing train say that the operator told them that there was another train on the track ahead of them and that they would be moving shortly. That would seem to indicate that the cause was mechanical in that the trains were being controlled by a computer. That computer system was something that the Washington Post referred to without any sign of tongue being in cheek as "failsafe."
I was a traffic reporter back in 1982 when the last Metro fatality crash occurred. Unlike this crash which led the nightly news on CNN and MSNBC, the crash 27-years ago got hardly a mention. Why? Because the Metrorail crash occurred the same afternoon as the horrific Air Florida crash into the 14th Street Bridge. The hero that day was somebody name Lenny Skutnik who, time after time, jumped into the freezing waters of the Potomac river that January day to save as many lives as he could. It was an amazing and heartwarming thing to watch.
(Jumping onto my soapbox) I am really tired of the way we throw the word "hero" around. Too many people in the media have been referring to some of the survivors because they helped others off the train. I'm sorry, but a hero is someone who goes way out of their way to help someone; rushes through a burning building to save a person or dives into icy and potential hazardous waters to save total strangers. What the vast of majority of these Metro crash "heros" have been is simply good citizens, helping out their fellow man. What they did was wonderful and helpful and occasionally courageous but let's hold off on the hero tag so that it really means something when we actually convey it to someone.
OK, Metro has not had a crash that resulted in fatalities in some time but they still have had more people die in train crashes in the past 30 years than has the massive New York City subway system. Check out the statistics. It's amazing that so much of what goes wrong is because of technical issues.
I am sure that the number of lawsuits coming out of this crash will be substantial, especially if it is discovered that the system itself had failed. I just hope that not everyone who got a small cut or scratch feels it necessary to grab their million dollars from the system. After all, Metro may just raise its fares to make up for their losses and everyone will suffer.
Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.
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