Two dead, others hurt in DC rail transit collision
WASHINGTON — Two Metro transit trains collided at the height of the Monday evening rush hour, killing at least two people and severely injuring others as cars of one train jackknifed into the air and fell atop the other. District of Columbia fire spokesman Alan Etter said crews were cutting apart the trains to get people out in what he described as a “mass casualty event.”
Rescue workers propped steel ladders up to the upper train cars to help survivors escape. Seats from the smashed cars had spilled out onto the track.
The crash took place on the system’s red line, Metro’s busiest, which runs below ground for much of its length but is above ground at the site near the Maryland border.
Both trains were on the same track, but officials said it was too early to determine what caused the crash.
Passenger Jodie Wickett, a nurse, told CNN she was seated on one train, sending text messages on her phone, when she felt the impact. She said she texted someone that it felt like the train had hit a bump.
“From that point on, it happened so fast, I flew out of the seat and hit my head.” Wickett said she stayed at the scene and tried to help. She said “people are just in very bad shape.”
“The people that were hurt, the ones that could speak, were calling back as we called out to them,” she said. “Lots of people were upset and crying, but there were no screams.”
One man said he was riding a bicycle across a bridge over the Metro tracks when the sound of the collision got his attention.
“I didn’t see any panic,” Barry Student said. “The whole situation was so surreal.”
The collision occurred about 5 p.m. EDT — the height of the city’s rush hour — inside the District of Columbia but near the city’s border with Maryland.
Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said less than two hours after the crash that federal authorities had no indication of any terrorism connection.
Metro general manager John Catoe said at least 60 people had been taken off the trains.
“I don’t know the reason for this accident,” he said. “I would still say the system is safe, but we’ve had an incident.”
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