Whoa—big story just posted by Washington Post reporters Lena Sun and Lyndsey Layton:

The train control system designed to prevent Metro crashes is malfunctioning across the railroad, suggesting that a technological failure at the heart of last month’s fatal crash may be widespread, according to officials and documents.

At least one-half dozen track circuits on four of the five lines of the transit system have failed to properly detect the presence of trains.

Six circuits have been shut down in addition to the one thought to have caused last month’s Red Line crash. Some of them—including ‘circuits at Greenbelt on the Green Line, Grosvenor on the Red Line and Foggy Bottom on the Orange/Blue line’—have been shut off, meaning trains can only pass through them one at a time, at 15 mph.

And double whoa:

[D]ocuments show that Metro technicians have detected malfunctions since at least July 11. Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. said publicly as recently as July 16 that the agency has inspected all 3,000 circuits and not noted any problems.

Hurt in Monday’s Metro crash and looking for legal representation? The folks behind dcmetrocrash.com would be happy to help you out.

The site actually includes a bunch of pretty good information about the crash—information that might be taken as somewhat incriminating, anyway. That the train operator ‘had been on the job for four months’; that the National Transportation Safety Board ‘warned twice that trains like the ones involved in Monday’s wreck may be dangerous to passengers’; and that ‘D.C.’s mayor said the blame for the crash should fall “squarely” on local officials.’

LL called the number on the site. He didn’t reach a lawyer, but rather Jared Reagan, proprietor of an outfit called Lawyer Marketing Solution.

Read More “Lawyers Use Web Site, Google Ads to Find Metro Crash Victims” »

You can listen to the radio transmissions from the metro crash here. [You can also go directly to the radio calls here].The first 911 dispatcher call out is for a pretty significant all hands on deck for a derailment. There doesn’t appear to be any confusion about the severity of the crash. And then there’s this apparently from a firefighter later on the tape asking for help:

“I don’t know if power has been cut off…I have a serious head injury.”

There are no time stamps so it’s hard to tell how long it took for the firefighters to report that the crash involved two trains, that it was above ground, that it was very serious. There are several calls before the mass casualty units are requested.

(Via the amazing STATter 911)

Video of the response after the jump.

Read More “Listen: Fire Dept. Radio Transmissions From Metro Crash” »

The family of Ana Fernandez, a victim of the metro crash, tell WTOP they’ve gotten a bunch of hate calls from anti-immigrant crazies. The station reports:

“They have been getting hate-filled telephone messages about whether or not Fernandez, a mother of six, was a legal immigrant.

Her family gathered outside her Hyattsville apartment Wednesday. A crying woman who identified herself as Ana’s sister said the accusations aren’t true.

‘Right now, the whole family is in pain. She was here legally, and all her children are legal. They were born here.’

She says she’s grateful for the genuine expressions of sympathy, but has a message for the people who have been making the harassing calls.

‘We all work, OK? And we’re going to get through this.’”

WTOP reporter Kate Ryan writes in to Loose Lips with more details of the hate calls:

“Ana Fernandez’ family tells me specifically that the calls accuse them of ‘using the crash’ to gain legal status for Ana. Again, the woman identifying herself as Ana’s sister (and Ana’s daughter Evelyn) tell me that not only was Ana legal, but that all six kids were born here.”

Read More “Metro Crash Victim’s Family Is Receiving Hate Messages” »

Hey, Metro rider!

By now, in the wake of Monday’s collision, you’ve heard plenty about the different types of Metro cars—specifically how the oldest ‘1000-series’ cars were judged by the NTSB years ago to offer substandard levels of protection in a crash.

So maybe you’re thinking that you should avoid these cars. But how?

Very simple: At the front and back of each car, underneath the operator’s window, there is a plate with a four-digit figure. That would be your car number. If the digit starts with a ‘1,’ that’s a 1000-series car.

Read More “1000-Series Metro Cars: How to Avoid Them, If You So Choose” »

As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—Washington City Paper’s continuing coverage of the Red Line collision

Morning all. In WaPo’s A Section today, amid all the second-day stories on the horrific Metro collision, Nikita Stewart examines questions about Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s performance as the face of the government response to the tragedy, reporting that ‘his performance during the past two days rubbed already raw nerves, causing friction between Metro and city officials’ and that it ‘drew complaints behind the scenes about his controlling behavior in the 24 hours after the crash.’ Check on-the-record Metro grumblings (’The spirit of cooperation is not what we would like it to be’) and off-the-record Metro grumblings, over his decision to not report confirmed fatalities at a morning presser. Says ex-mayoral press aide Tony Bullock, ‘It indicates that we’re not really on top of it if we can’t count to nine.’ WCP’s Jason Cherkis looks more closely at the death toll figure.

LL SAYS—Fenty was absolutely right to take charge at the post-accident press events; it happened in the District of Columbia, and his employees were the first responders to the crash. Once in front of the cameras, he did a decent job, even exiting his usual robot-speak for a moment or two. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin—save for his habit of lapsing into firefighter jargon—did an even better job. WHAT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT COOL is silencing people with good information in the time when good information is needed. LL was driving up North Capitol Street at about 5:45 Monday, listening to FEMS PIO Alan Etter giving updates on WTOP. When LL got to the scene just before 6, he couldn’t find Etter or any other city, federal, or Metro spokesperson to give answers to basic questions until a 7:10 news conference. In a disaster, 75 minutes or more without official information is simply an eternity, a void that will be filled by the sorts of unconfirmed reports the shutdown strategy is ostensibly trying to prevent.

AFTER THE JUMP—Fenty says ‘lives are more important than finances’; Metro’s Orwellian ‘mechanical difficulties’; DCPS “scrubs” gay-themed books from reading lists; and the de facto vacant property tax cut.

Read More “Putting Fenty’s Face Forward: Loose Lips Daily” »

The one thing you don’t mess around with in a tragedy is the body count. But yesterday morning during a press conference on the metro crash, Mayor Adrian Fenty did just that. Even though Metro and the Fire Department had confirmed that nine passengers had died in the Red Line accident, Fenty overruled those officials and confused everyone. Fenty decided presumably on his own that in fact only seven were confirmed dead.

Shortly after the press conference, the body count rose back to nine.

City Desk tried to figure out the discrepency yesterday. Was it a matter of government sources getting ahead of themselves? Was it simply a matter of confusion at the crash scene? Today, the Washington Post published a story which reveals the source of the mix up: Fenty.

Read More “So Who Screwed Up The Metro Crash Body Count? Fenty” »

Councilmember Jim Graham, who is chairman of the Metro Board, just called in to report a few things to City Desk regarding yesterday’s Metro crash. Graham mentioned that the board’s $250,000 relief fund for the Metro crash victims’ families. He emphasized that this is not hush money.

“We wanted to have this immediately,” Graham explains. “We know there are probably going to be significant legal actions.”

Graham says that one of the inspirations for the relief fund came from the circumstances involving one of the victims—Ana Fernandez, who left behind six children. The Examiner notes that she lived in Hyattsville and had resided in the area for the past 10 years. She worked evenings as a part-time housekeeper. Graham says: “We don’t know how many more are like that. Those needs came to my attention today….And now there’s emergency relief.”

Graham says that reps from El Salvador’s embassy have reached out to the Fernandez family as has Mayor Adrian M. Fenty.

Read More “Graham On Metro Crash: ‘There Are Probably Going To Be Significant Legal Actions’” »

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty: Expresses deepest condolences, as is standard practice to start these briefings.

Confirms nine fatalities, the final count. “As a government and as a city” there are only four people whose identities have been confirmed.

Three of the four are residents of the District of Columbia. One lived in Hyattsville. Fenty contacted three of the four families personally. Says can’t imagine the “horror and disbelief” of the families.

Fire department has completed its work as the lead agency. Debbie Hersman and the NTSB will now become the lead agency in this matter. Fenty thanks the feds for making all kinds of resources available.

Next up at the mic is D.C. fire Chief Dennis Rubin. He says that fire and EMS and various agencies have done an “absolutely incredible job” of doing their thing. Highlights—timeline begins at 5 pm, had units on location within six minutes. “Obvious this was going to be a major national event.” Then they did coordination with inbound agencies. First injury person was transported 21 minutes later; last person was transported 6 hours and 51 minutes later.

Read More “Fenty Presser Liveblog” »

Brandon Burgess, who was standing by the glass partition in the middle of the Red Line car mangled in yesterday’s crash, gives an interesting account of what happened to the Knoxville News Sentinel (he’s a former student at the University of Tennessee).

Burgess, on his way to U Street and planning to change trains at Fort Totten, describes climbing over the rubble in the smoke-filled car, seeing sky, losing his shoes, and trying to dislodge a teenager whose leg appeared to be broken. A roommate picked him up in a cab after the crash.

After all of it, Burgess says Metro’s still the safest way to get around D.C. “but from now on I’ll be sitting in the middle car of the train where, hopefully, this will never happen again.”

The Washington Times picked up what may become an emerging angle from the Metro Crash—the tensions between WMATA and the D.C. Fire Department. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin basically called out WMATA for initially downplaying the extent of the crash. The Times writes:

“Fire officials stated bluntly Monday night that Metro’s original description of the accident understated its magnitude, and it was only when the first rescuers arrived at the scene that the sort of help needed was finally summoned.

‘A little after five o’clock we responded to what was believed to be a small incident,’ D.C. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin said. ‘The first arriving company recognized the fact that apparently two trains had collided.’ Fire officials eventually sounded three alarms, summoning hundreds of rescuers and implementing their mass- casualty operations.”

It’s unclear whether rescue work was delayed as a result or whether WMATA or 911 dispatchers made errors in communicating the severity of the crash. “[The Office of Unified Communications] is not under our purview,” explains Deputy Fire Chief Kenneth Crosswhite. “We’re not responsible for OUC….I would be curious to hear what the first 911 call was reporting.”

Fire Department Spokesperson Alan Etter refused to say when the department sounded three alarms and summoned all those rescue workers. “It was an evolving event—resources were called as they were needed,” he stated in an e-mail to City Desk. “In other words, nobody jumped up and said—this is a third alarm incident—at the height of involvement we had an equivalent of three alarms on scene—more than 200 personnel–with mutual aid, etc.”

The department’s own notification records point to such a response. It’s unclear whether or not that response was timely.

Read More “One Emerging Angle: Was The Fire Department Properly Notified Of Metro Crash?” »

WaPo’s Dr. Gridlock blogged the identities of seven of the nine who died in yesterday’s Red Line crash:

• Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield (train operator)

• Major General David F. Wherley, Jr., former commanding general, Joint Force Headquarters, District of Columbia National Guard, and his wife Ann, both 62
• Lavonda King, 23
• Dennis Hawkins, 64
• Mary Doolittle, 59
• Anna Fernandez, 40

Per Cherkis, per WTOP, as well, with more on where they lived and one alternate spelling (Lavanda King).

Councilmember Phil Mendelson put out a statement about the Wherleys:

Read More “Seven Metro Crash Victims Identified” »

WMATA on Twitter from nine minutes ago:

“Red Line: Trains are turning back at Rhode Island Avenue & Silver Spring due to a situation outside of Fort Totten station. Shuttle bus ser”

Read More “WMATA Twitter Dubs Metro Crash ‘A Situation’” »

The Washington Post is reporting that the metro car involved in the Red Line crash yesterday was due for brake maintenance. The Post writes:

“The Metro train car that slammed into another on the Red Line yesterday evening was two months past due for scheduled maintenance on its brakes, and the car was an older model that federal officials had recommended be replaced because of concerns about its safety in a crash, officials said today….

According to a Metro source knowledgeable about railcar maintenance, the first car of the striking train was two months behind on a scheduled maintenance for changing out brakes and brake components.”

Read More “Metro Crash Train Was Due For Brake Fix; Names Of Some Dead Released” »

So how did the Red Line metro crash death toll jump to nine last night then fall back to seven this morning and then back up to nine? Last night, City Desk reported that three news outlets—WUSA9, WTOP, and WJLA—had confirmed that nine had died in the crash. WTOP cited the D.C. Fire Department as its source. WJLA had cited Metro.

This morning, Fenty stated that the number of confirmed dead was actually seven. That number soon increased back up to nine.

At least one fire department official is trying to figure out how and why there was so much confusion. One reporter City Desk contacted speculates that it may have to do with just the gruesomeness of the scene.

Read More “Metro Crash Death Count: WTF” »