Metro Fights Back

A six-car train overran the platform at the Potomac Avenue Metrorail station by less than the length of one railcar in early March. Was the incident a pre-cursor to June's deadly crash?

The Washington Post says yes. But Metro claims "this was an isolated incident" and "separate and apart from the June 22 accident."

In a press release, Metro Chief Safety Officer Alexa Dupigny-Samuels defends the transit agency's safety record and points to the March 2 incident as "a good example of how we [Metro] follow up on safety concerns and correst the issue when it is identified."

Dupigny-Samuels, who goes on to address each of the WashPo's points, adds, "...Our Metrorail system is safe and ... I personally continue to use it regularly."

According to The Washington Post, though, "the crash-avoidance system suspected of failing in the recent deadly accident on Metro's Red Line malfunctioned three months earlier, when a rush-hour train on Capitol Hill came 'dangerously close' to another train and halted only after the operator hit the emergency brake."

At the time of the March 2 incident, the train operator and control-center supervisors did not know that anything serious was wrong, the records indicate. The operator applied the brake because he realized that the train was not slowing fast enough and would overrun the station platform, a fairly common occurrence. About a week later, while reviewing computer logs, officials determined that there was a problem with the Automatic Train Protection system and that the train had stopped just 500 feet behind another.

Dupigny-Samuels responds: "The Post article stated that the trains came “dangerously close” on March 2. In fact, trains were about 500 feet apart, a safe distance--a fact that was shared with the reporters before the article was written."

But according to the WashPo, Metro's transparency policy did not include making public "the near miss at the Potomac Avenue Station, and federal investigators said Metro did not tell them about it after the Red Line crash, which killed nine people and injured 80" -- a point confirmed by National Transportation Safety Board officials.

Dupigny-Samuels continues to address several points from the WashPo article in her statement.