Lawsuit to Be Filed Over Smoke-Filled Metro Tunnel

Several Metro passengers who were injured Monday when a Yellow Line train filled with smoke have have announced that they will file a lawsuit Friday against the transit agency for negligence.

Malbert Rich, who was hospitalized after Monday's incident, spoke at Thursday's news conference. He said he didn't see a way to get off the train and began texting his family to say his final goodbye.

"I told my mother that I loved being her son. I told my kids, I loved being their dad," Rich recalled during Thursday's news conference.

Video from those aboard shows passengers coughing and lying on the ground, searching for fresh air. According to witness reports, it took as long as an hour for first responders to reach the passengers.

Carol Inman Glover, 61, died during Monday's incident. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled her death accidental by acute respiratory failure from smoke exposure.

Dozens of other people were injured.

Glover was the first fatality on the Metro system since a 2009 crash killed nine people.

The victims are being represented by Kim Brooks Rodney, the same woman who handled the two death cases in the 2009 Metro crash. Rodney worked as an assistant general counsel for WMATA from 1988 to 1993.

The malfunction happened about 3:30 p.m. Monday near L'Enfant Plaza, one of the subway's busiest stations. The stop is near the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and many federal office buildings, including the headquarters of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation.

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A six-car subway train had just pulled out from the station when it ground to a halt and foul-smelling smoke began filling the tunnel and the cars. NTSB investigator Michael Flanigon said the smoke started when something came into contact with the high-voltage third rail and caused an electrical arc.

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The Metrorail system, which connects Washington with the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, carries an average of 721,000 passengers each weekday. Smoke and fire are not unusual on the subway system, which opened in 1976 and still uses some original rail cars. Metro's most recent safety reports showed 86 incidents of smoke or fire in 2013 and 85 through the first eight months of 2014.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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