WASHINGTON - Two Metro workers were struck and killed by a piece of track equipment just north of the Rockville Metrorail station early Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a series of serious incidents that have plagued the system over the last year. The workers were installing equipment on the tracks that helps trains communicate with each other and with headquarters, the Washington Post reports.
"Something went horribly wrong this morning," Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the Metrorail system, said in an interview with WRC-TV (Channel 4). "Our hearts go out to the families of the individuals who are deceased."
Red Line service in the Rockville area is being disrupted as the incident is investigated. There is no train service at the Shady Grove or Rockville stations; instead, inbound trains originate at Twinbrook, and outbound trains end their routes at the Twinbrook station.
Officials said free shuttle buses are moving customers between Twinbrook and the closed stations, but the buses cannot handle the normal volume of passengers, so delays are expected. A bus can carry about 50 passengers, while a six-car train can carry about 800 passengers.
Long lines for buses had formed at the Rockville station before 7 a.m. Commuters were urged to bypass that station and Shady Grove, and instead drive to Twinbrook or the Grosvenor-Strathmore Metrorail stations to catch a train.
"There will be long delays and waits for shuttle buses," Farbstein told Channel 4. She said if commuters from the Rockville area can head to a station further south, "they're going to have a much smoother commute."
Metro officials said the two Metro employees were struck about 1:45 a.m. by a "high-rail" vehicle, a large truck that is equipped with special wheels that allow it to drive on the track when the electricity that usually powers trains is turned off. The employees were installing new train control equipment in the track bed along an outbound section of Red Line track Line, just north of the Rockville station. That type of work that can only be done when trains are not running, so it is almost always scheduled overnight.
Metro officials said they have notified the National Transportation Safety Board and the Tri-State Oversight Committee, which is the regional monitor of Metro. Both agencies sent teams to the crash site early Tuesday to launch investigations. Farbstein said the federal agency would determine when the closed stations could be reopened.
There was no information immediately available about why the workers could not get out of the way of the errant equipment, or what systems should have been in place to keep it from striking the workers.
The section of track where the men were struck is parallel to Hungerford Drive (the extension of Route 355 after the Rockville Pike ends), at the intersection with Mannakee Street.
One of the employees was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was taken to Suburban Hospital, where he later died, officials said. The names of the two men were withheld pending notification of their families.
One northbound lane of Hungerford Drive was closed this morning near the collision site, officials said, to accommodate emergency equipment.
Other recent, serious incidents on Metrorail include a train operator crashing his train into several parked trains at the West Falls Church rail yard on Nov. 29, injuring three workers and causing $9 million in damage; an August incident at the same rail yard in which two mechanics were hurt when a two-car train struck the rail cars they were working on; a piece of track equipment striking and killing a Metro worker on the Orange Line on Aug. 9; and a worker fatally injured by a train between the Braddock Road and Reagan National Airport stations Sept. 10.
On June 22, nine people were killed and scores were injured when an inbound Metro train crashed into a stationary train north of the Fort Totten station on the Red Line -- by far the deadliest incident in the rail system's 34-year history.
In the ensuing months, The Washington Post reported systemwide problems in train control technology and safety oversight. Internal records showed that the supposedly fail-safe crash-avoidance system had failed three months before June's crash, allowing two trains to come "dangerously close" to colliding. Records showed that the system also had failed in 2005, when three trains narrowly averted "disastrous collisions."
Other records revealed that Metro's decision, made after the crash, to sandwich older subway cars between newer, sturdier ones had not been supported by its own engineering studies and appeared to be a public relations move.
The biggest jolt came after an article reported that Metro had quietly barred safety monitors from walking along its live tracks to assess Metro's compliance with its own safety rules. During the ban, two workers were hit on the tracks and fatally injured.
The inspectors were given renewed access to live tracks in December. Within days, a team of safety monitors was nearly hit by a Metro train that appeared to be traveling at full speed and making no attempt to slow, as required by agency rules.
Also last month, The Post reported that the newspaper's analysis of safety data showed that more than 100 safety flaws identified after audits, accidents and other incidents languished unfixed, some for five years.
Metro's safety became a focus of at least three hearings on Capitol Hill. In December, the Obama administration referred to Metro in calling for what it termed a historic step: taking federal control of safety regulation of subways and light rail systems nationwide.
Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. announced Jan. 14 that he would step down from his job in April to give the agency a fresh start.
(This item appeared in the Washington Post Jan. 26, 2010.)
