At Least Six Dead in DC Subway Collision, Deadliest in Metro History

A subway train collision in Washington, DC killed at least six people and injured at least 70, marking the deadliest crash in the District’s transit history.

Two Red Line Metrorail trains collided Monday evening in between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations. The crash caused one of the trains to vault onto the other.

At a press conference near the scene, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty called it the "deadliest accident in the history of our Metro train system."

Washington Metropolitian Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) officials said the two trains were headed in the same direction, when one rear-ended the other shortly after 5 p.m. The female operator of the trailing train died.

The Metro car was stalled, waiting for clearance into the Fort Totten station, when a second one plowed into it from behind, according to D.C. fire officials. The operator of the second train is confirmed dead. The accident happened around 4:59 p.m. on the city's red line in northeast Washington between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations.

According to witness accounts by the Washington Post, the conductor of the trailing car told passengers that they were slowing up because of another train on the track. However the trailing car began to move again, only for passengers to experience a “violent jolt”. The electricity went out on the trains and survivors had to open the car doors themselves in order to escape.

The crash shut down a section of the Red Line, the busiest line on the Metro, DC’s subway system. Trains are operating between Glenmont and Silver Spring and between Shady Grove and Rhode Island Avenue.

Between Rhode Island Avenue and Silver Spring stations, Metro is offering a shuttle bus service, but Metro cautioned that it would likely be overwhelmed.

No details were available about the cause of the accident, which is the third time in the last 15 years that there has been a collision between two Metro trains. The last was in November 2004, when a Red Line train rolled backwards down a steep stretch of track, and smashed into another train at the Woodley Park station. Twenty people were injured in that crash.

To see the complete Metro transit map, please look in the photo album below.

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