“Mass Casualty Event” Kills At Least Nine After Two Subway Trains Collide In D.C.
Posted June 22, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Anyone who remembers the devastating TTC crash on the Spadina line in August 1995 can imagine the horror commuters in Washington D.C. were experiencing on Monday, after two commuter trains collided with each other, creating what authorities were immediately calling a “mass casualty event.”
One six train car hit another longer train just as the rush hour was heating up. The vehicles wound up on top of each other after derailing. At least nine people are dead and scores more are hurt.
Crews used heavy cutting equipment to get through to the remaining trapped passengers, an agonizing procedure that took hours. At least 70 patients were transported to hospital.
The accident took place on the so-called Red Line, a high speed rail conveyance and one of the busiest commuter routes in the U.S. capital.
It’s still not entirely clear why the accident happened, but one train was stopped around a bend on the tracks waiting for a station ahead to be cleared when the other vehicles came roaring up behind it at full speed.
