Speechless…
2 minute read
November 3, 2004, 11:09 PM
You’ve seen my hundreds of WMATA photos on my Transit Center site before. This is one photo that had me somewhat speechless for a bit when I saw it:
Photo from The Washington Post
What you’re seeing there is an accident that happened on Wednesday, November 3, just before 1 PM at Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan station. An out-of-service train lost its brakes, and rolled backwards into a train in service. I think that the fact that no one was killed and few were injured stemmed from the fact that the train operator quickly made an announcement for everyone to get off the train as quickly as possible, and to run if need be.
The out-of-service train actually ran up onto the other train, with the last car coming to rest on top of the in-service train. In the photo, the top car is a Rohr. The bottom car is a Breda 4000-series. I have a feeling that the Rohr car has probably made its last run ever, since it appears that the entire cab is gone. Seriously, look – the rail car is literally gone beyond the first set of doors. I can’t tell what kind of damage happened to the Breda due to the fact that a rather large Rohr train is sitting on top of it.
As the Rohr car looks pretty much totaled, I wonder what will happen to its mate. I also wonder if the Breda car is totaled or not. I wonder what Metro does with these cars’ mates. When the Shady Grove accident happened in 1996, the involved cars’ mates were matched together and renumbered. Of course, that was more optimal conditions. The cars were both of the same series (Breda 3000), and an odd numbered car hit an even numbered car. Thus the remaining cars were one odd numbered car and one even numbered car. And so the cars were matchable.
I am interested to find out all the specifics, as the National Transportation Safety Board will probably release a 100-some page report with the full story, the events leading up to it, policies in place that contributed to it, and lessons learned. This is what they did with the 1996 Shady Grove accident. I found a PDF of that report online, and I have read the whole bloody thing. Very interesting report for me, as someone with a degree in Public Administration.
Meanwhile, I am still going to Washington DC as planned.
Web site: Washington Post article about the WMATA accident on the Red Line
Song: None - I'm just shocked about the train accident
Quote: UNRELATED: As we all know, George W. Bush defeated John Kerry. Don't remind me. However, I'm just glad that the results came quickly and as such we learned who the President is going to be on the day after the election. And besides, maybe the Democratic Party can retake the White House in 2008. Still, I'm just glad that it came to a conclusion quickly, and that someone was actually elected in a way so that no one could call it a "stolen" election. Now the prospect of four more years of George W. Bush does leave me a little unsettled, and the fact that since he actually did win the popular vote this time around will probably make him think he has a mandate from the people. But we'll have to deal with it. Besides - Bush bashing is FUN!
Categories: WMATA