Deadly Metro transit train crash in DC, 6 dead, 100+ seriously injured

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Thats sad that people got killed, it is even more shocking when you see the photos of one car on top of another. I think the need to fix the DC Metro transit system as not only have there been other accidents like this but whoever was in charge didnt see the oncoming train and i have had other issues with the trains when i went on my dc trip like that they would stop in the middle of nowhere.
 
Oh thank god it wasn't computerized. If it was I would have been shit scared.
 
:sigh: My heart really does go out to the victims. People don't really expect to have rear end collisions on a train, and really, these type of events are extremely rare. It's a shame, because I really love public transit. Unfortunately it's incidents like these that give public transit a bad rap. This incident doesn't help that at all.

Thankfully this train was departing southbound, towards DC, so it wasn't loaded up with commuters heading home. At least this lessened the potential casualties.

As a daily metro commuter, I happened to be on a train within the vicinity around the very instance of collision, but thankfully I take a different line. Today metro administration are running trains a bit slower, for good reason, and running on full manual transmission. [Trains have automatic sensors that help slow trains down as they approach the platform. They turned that function off for today as well.] I was pretty wary of the manual transmission as I rode today, which they really didn't need to do but I know they did it just to save face. If any other incidents involving train crashes are to show, humans are quite prone to error, so it worried me that they decided to take them off the autopilot.

Recent reports indicate the train's unwillingness to slow down for the stopped train was due to a breaking failure. Our metro system's operating budget had been so strained recently that sacrifices were being made to critical repairs last year. In this incident we see the first casualties of what lack of maintenance can do.

You can say you need to fix it, but if you lack the tools to do it, then what can you do? Stopping the trains would be a back lash to the local economy since 400-500k people ride it daily. It's a risk I suppose our transit agency and our area governments (through lack of funding the WMATA) was willing to take. And then this happens.

Well I'll let you in on an engineering secret. For most infrastructure projects, big, big budget money doesn't usually start flowing in until people die. You can expect a big fat paycheck to fix this problem in the coming months so this doesn't happen again. Sad, but that's the reality of it. It worked for the I-35 interstate collapse a while back and it also worked for the aftermath of Katrina.
 
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Our tax dollars at work. Yay for not fixing things so we can "spread democracy" abroad!

And you know that that more than anything is the reason why DC had this and why Chicago's raising fares left and right... Can't wait until everything falls apart.
 
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