Local News

Federal investigators planned to test the automated controls for Metro trains for the first time Wednesday, looking to see why the computerized system designed to prevent such disasters failed.

At the time of the crash, the train was controlled primarily by computer, but there is evidence that the operator tried to slow it down.

"What we're trying to understand is how the automatic train control system works and if there were any faults," said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board told CBS' "Early Show." "Today is the first day that we're going to have access to the signal system and the tracks and the circuits to be able to test those."

A train plowed into a stopped train Monday in the deadliest accident in the 33-year history of the Metro.

Kelly McPherson reports the moving train was overdue for brake maintenance, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports that train was part of a fleet that was aging (from at least 1975) and should have been replaced three years ago.

With one crunch of metal to metal, a DC metro rear-ended and landed on top of another one, instantly turning a rush hour commute into a nightmare.

"By far, the deadliest crash in the history of the Washington DC Metro Transit system," DC Mayor Adrian Fenty said.

Authorities confirm nine people are dead, including the operator of the moving train, Jeanice McMillan, 42.  More than 70 passengers battle injuries.

Dozens of crews pried trains off each other with heavy equipment, while cadaver dogs searched inside the subway cars for remains.

"In layers, we're taking the huge components of steel and metal to disengage and to check all of the areas where clues may be," DC Metro Chief John Catoe said.

The gruesome crash is the second major crash that's happened on the Metro's redline in recent years.  In 2004, a train from the same aging fleet smashed into another one, injuring 20 people.  As a result, two years later, the NTSB made recommendations that Metro authorities ignored.

"We recommended to either retrofit those cars or to phase them out of the fleet," NTSB investigator Debbie Hersman said. "They have not been able to do that, and our recommendation was not addressed."

At this time investigators can't say what caused Monday's crash.

The NTSB is relying on black box data recorders to figure out what happened, and they want to stress that at this point it is too early to link their recommendations from two years ago to this accident.

Denise Koch reports the victims identified in the crash were Jeanice McMillan from Springfield, Va, 42, Mary Doolittle from Northwest DC, 59, Ana Fernandez from Hyattsville, 40, Dennis Hawkins from Southeast DC, 64, Lavonda King from Northeast DC, 23, Major General David Wherley, 63, and his wife Ann Wherley, 62, Cameron Williams and Veronica Dubois, 29.

King was riding the train to pick up her two sons and had just gotten engaged.

Surviors say the moments afterwards were complete chaos. 

"The seats flew up and pushed us.  We flew.  I'm alright now, but it was hurting earlier," Brittney Riddick and Serena McBride said.
 
The head of the transit workers' union in the nation's capital says any comments about the cause of a train accident that killed nine people would be premature and irresponsible.

The president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 said Tuesday that it is important that steps are taken to avoid any future tragedy. President Jackie Jeter says the training for a train operator is 12 weeks.

The driver of the train that barreled into a stopped train completed her training in December. The train operator, Jeanice McMillan, had previously been a bus driver.

The union represents more than 10,000 retired and active employees. Nearly 8,000 of the active members work as train and bus operators, mechanics and clerical workers, among other positions.

One Metro transit train smashed into the rear of another at the height of the capital city's Monday evening rush hour, killing at least six people and injuring scores of others as the front end of the trailing train jackknifed violently into the air and fell atop the first.

Cars of both trains were ripped open and smashed together in the worst accident in the Metrorail system's 33-year history. District of Columbia fire spokesman Alan Etter said crews had to cut some people out of what he described as a "mass casualty event."

Rescue workers propped steel ladders up to the upper train cars to help survivors scramble to safety. Seats from the smashed cars spilled out onto the track.

Dennis Rubin said rescue workers treated 76 people at the scene and sent some of them to local hospitals, six with critical injuries. A search for further victims continued into the night.

President Barack Obama sent his condolences to the victims of the crash.

"Michelle and I were saddened by the terrible accident in Northeast Washington, D.C., today," Obama said in a statement issued Monday night. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends affected by this tragedy."

The president also thanked rescue personnel who helped to save lives.

The crash happened around 5 p.m. It took place on the system's red line, Metro's busiest, which runs below ground for much of its length but is at ground level at the accident site near the Maryland border in northeast Washington.

Metro chief John Catoe said the first train was stopped on the tracks, waiting for another to clear the station ahead, when the trailing train, one of the oldest in the Metro fleet, plowed into it from behind.

Officials had no explanation for the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board took charge of the investigation and sent a team to the site. DC police and the FBI also had investigators at the scene to help search the wreckage for any overlooked injured or dead passengers and evidence.

Officials would not say how fast the train was traveling at the time of the accident. The crash occurred in an area with a sizable distance between rail stations in which trains are allowed to travel at higher speeds, Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said.

Investigators are searching the wreckage for the trains' devices that record operating speeds and commands, NTSB member Debbie Hersman said.

Each train had six cars and was capable of holding as many as 1,200 people. Hersman said the trains were bound for downtown. That would mean they were less likely to be filled during the afternoon rush hour.

The trains had pulled out of the Takoma Park station and were headed in the direction of the Fort Totten station.

More than 200 firefighters from D.C., Maryland and Virginia eventually converged on the scene. Sabrina Webber, a 45-year-old real estate agent who lives in the neighborhood, said the first rescuers to arrive had to use the "jaws of life" to pry open a wire fence along rail line to get to the train.

Webber raced to the scene after hearing a loud boom like a "thunder crash" and then sirens. She said there was no panic among the survivors.

Passenger Jodie Wickett, a nurse, told CNN she was seated on one train, sending text messages on her phone, when she felt the impact. She said she sent a message to someone that it felt like the train had hit a bump.

"From that point on, it happened so fast, I flew out of the seat and hit my head." Wickett said she stayed at the scene and tried to help. She said "people are just in very bad shape."

"The people that were hurt, the ones that could speak, were calling back as we called out to them," she said. "Lots of people were upset and crying, but there were no screams."

One man said he was riding a bicycle across a bridge over the Metro tracks when the sound of the crash got his attention. "I didn't see any panic," Barry Student said. "The whole situation was so surreal."

At Howard University Hospital, Dr. Johnnie Ford, an emergency room doctor, said a 14-year-old girl suffered two broken legs in the accident. A 20-year-old male patient "looked like he had been tumbled around quite a bit, bumps and bruises from head to toe," Ford said.

Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said less than two hours after the crash that federal authorities had no indication of any terrorism connection.

"I don't know the reason for this accident," Metro's Catoe said. "I would still say the system is safe, but we've had an incident."

Monday's crash was the third major subway or commuter rail crash in a big city in the past nine months. In the earlier accidents: -- In September 2008, a commuter rail train and a freight train crashed in Los Angeles, killing 25 people. The crash was blamed on an engineer on the commuter rail sending text messages on a cell phone.

Last month about 50 people were injured in Boston when one trolley rear-ended another. The conductor admitted to sending a text message when the crash occurred.

No reason was given for the Washington crash, but some safety experts are concerned about the recent increase.

"I'm not sure if everyone in the safety system is paying the proper attention that needs to be paid," said Barry Sweedler, a San Francisco-based safety consultant and former investigator and manager at the NTSB. "These things shouldn't be happening."

However, Robert Lauby, a former NTSB rail investigator, said the increase in accidents could well be mere coincidence. "Just because you had them doesn't mean there's a specific issue that caused them," Lauby said.

The only other time in Metrorail's 33-year history that there were passenger fatalities was on Jan. 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment underneath downtown. That was a day of disaster in the capital -- shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the 14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff in a severe snowstorm from Washington National Airport across the Potomac River. The plane crash killed 78 people.

If you need to find out about loved ones who may have been on one of those two metro trains, here is the phone number to call: (202) 737-4404.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)