During the height of rush hour traffic today, one metro transit train smashed into the rear end of another train causing it to jackknife violently into the air and landing on top of the train it ran into, killing at least six people and injuring 76, including the female operator of the trailing train.

It is known that this was not an act of terrorism, but investigators are not sure what had caused this tragic accident.  It was said that the first train had stopped, waiting for another to clear the station ahead, when the trailing train plowed into it from behind.  Authorities had mentioned that the train that caused the accident is one of the oldest in the Metro fleet, not knowing if that had anything to do with the accident or not.

Witnesses at the scene said it was surreal, that when the crash first happened there was no panic.  One bystander said she saw the first rescue unit using the Jaws of Life to tear through the nearby fence to get to where the train was, luckily the train was on the stretch above ground which made it easier for rescue crews, since this train mainly travels below ground.

Each train had six cars and could hold up to 1,200 passengers, but they believe that the train was not as full because it was heading into downtown to pick up the majority of the downtown commuters.  Dr. Johnnie Ford, from Harvard University Hospital had seen and helped a few patients from the crash, mentioning a 14-year old girl had suffered two broken legs from the accident and another passenger had suffered many bumps and bruises all over his body.

A woman by the name of Jodie Wickett, a nurse, was a passenger on the train when it crashed.  She had told CNN that she was text messaging on her phone when she first had felt the train hit a bump.  After that she said everything happened so fast, she had flown out of her seat and hit her head.  After she got out of the wreckage she stayed to help look for other passengers calling out to them.  Wickett had told CNN, “people are just in very bad shape.”

This is the third metro transit crash within the last year.  One was in Los Angeles in September 2008, the engineer on the commuter rail that crashed into the freight train admitted to texting on their cell phone, killing 25 people.  Another happened in Boston last month where two trolley’s rear-ended one another.  The conductor of one of the trolly’s admitted to sending a text message when the trolly crashed, injuring 50 people.  It is not known as of yet what caused the crash today in Washington, DC, but I have a feeling it also had to do with text messaging.  Unless for some reason the brakes were not working on the older train, the female operator running the train had to have been pre-occupied to not notice the train in front of her stopped.  If nothing else, 2 out of the 3 accidents that had happened over this last year were due to cell phone use while operating a metro transit vehicle.  

My questions are:  Why would you pre-occupy yourself when you are responsible for the lives of all the passengers you are carrying, including up to 1,200 other passengers?  Why wouldn’t Metro transit have a stricter policy for cell phone usage for employees, such as not allowing a cell phone on person at all while working?  Do the surviving engineers or conductors feel guilty and are they fired for using their cell phone and endangering many other lives? 

Texting and driving (any type of vehicle) is extremely dangerous.  You are not just harming yourself, but your passengers and the people around you.  Please, do not text while operating a vehicle.