Red Line is the line I take to get downtown when I need to. The whole mess is mucking up traffic pretty bad here, too.
My boyfriend's coworker's roommate was on the second train that collided with the first. Here's his account:
"Hey guys,
This is from my roommate Brandon. For those of you that don't know, he was on the first car of the train that hit the other. This is what his account was of the accident.
-Michael
All,
Thanks for all your thought and well wishes. I'm incredibly thankful right now to be alive and relatively unscathed. Needless to say it was terrible and unnerving experience. I'm especially grateful for the friends and family that were trying to contact me (even as little as 30 minutes after the accident). I have a couple of scrapes and a bruised back and shoulder but nothing major. I just sat down to type out what happened during the accident for the investigators. If you're interested in the Metro collision, read on.
Brandon
Here's what happened:
"Here is my account of the events that happened during the Metrorail accident at Fort Totten station on Monday. I am going to try to give you as much information as possible for your investigation. If you have any other questions or need clarification, please contact me.
I boarded the first car at Takoma Metro Station at approximately 4:55pm. I entered the train through the center doors and sat down on one of the seats that’s facing the side of the train car. I was in the seat that was on the opposite side of the open doors and (right side if looking forward) and leaned against the glass barrier between the seat and center doors. Here are some further observations in terms of my placement relative to other passengers. The car itself was not even close to full. There were a total of maybe 15 people in our car (but I could be wrong). Directly across from me were a African American couple (1 male and 1 female), on the other side of the door on the right side was a college age male and directly across from him was another male. To my left and a couple of rows back there was an African American teenager sitting in one of the seats in the middle of that section of the train. There were other passengers that were seated in the back.
After boarding, the train doors closed and proceeded normally. I heard before there had been an malfunction at Tenleytown and that the trains were delayed so I was expecting some type of stop midway to my destination (Fort Totten to transfer to the green line to go to U st.) As we got close to Fort Totten Station the drive came on the public address and calmly said that there was a train in front of us and that we’d be stopping shortly to wait till we were to proceed to the station. At the time, the driver’s voice was calm with no hint of distress or confusion. After the announcement, the train was still traveling at what seemed to be near full speed. If there was an attempt at stopping before impact, there wasn’t a lot of deceleration before we collided. Approximately 5 seconds later we collided with the train in front of us (although at the time, I did not immediately know with what we had hit). During the collision, I felt a bump and everything went towards the front of the train. When I looked right towards the front of the train I saw everything (seats, rails, carpet, flooring) compacting and coming towards me. I immediately got up and tried to run towards the back of the train. In the process of running the debris started to slide underneath me and I began to start climbing.
Within a few seconds (no more than 10 it seems) everything stopped moving.
My final position was on top of a bunch of seats and a section of the carpeted aisle approximately 2.5 feet from the ceiling and the debris I was sitting on. In the process of getting up and running my sandals fell off my feet and I climbed barefoot through the debris. With everything happening so quickly, I honestly do not know how I managed to climb on top of everything and escape relatively uninjured.
Once I had climbed to the back of the car I noticed that the majority of the damage stopped at the rear set of doors. The train was leaning to the right and the only thing that you could see looking forward was the mound of seats and debris and the sky. I could not even tell what we had hit.
From the middle of the car and looking towards the front there wasn’t anything left of the train. The seat that I was in was completely gone.
Both rear side doors were blocked and jammed with no way to get out. The car was starting to fill with smoke and dust. The other passengers and I that survived and could still move around after the collision started to try to help some of the pinned passengers. The african american teenager that was seated near the back of the train was pinned between his seat and the seat in front of him. He was talking calmly and did not seem too injured. I started to try to pry the seats apart to see if he could start to free him. He managed to get one leg free but then found out that his other leg may have been broken. I told him that I didn’t want to move him or risk further injury. The other passengers were climbing and trying to find other survivors and help them. There was one person trapped underneath all the debris who was calling out for help. I could not see her from where I was standing and I am not sure that the person that was trying to help her could either. I then called 911 and told them that there had been an accident and that they needed to stop the trains on the red line. The responder said that we should try and not move but communicate with the injured until the paramedics arrived.
Since the car was starting to fill with smoke and dust we tried to open the doors to get the smoke out. I tried to open the door to the back of the car and got it to open but the door in the next car was blocked by a bulkhead that had collapsed. The african american gentleman sitting across from me before the accident tried to break the glass of the rear door window. He had to use a fire extinguisher break the glass. I called my family and roommate to tell them I was ok and would call them in a little while. A woman passenger with medical training shortly arrived and climbed into the car through the window and started to help find passengers. By this time (approximately 5-7 minutes after the collision) the first paramedics or metro police arrived and entered the car by climbing through the window. The paramedics immediately began removing debris to try to get to the trapped woman. We started removing debris from the area and placing it in the seats. At this point the survivors that could walk were directed to exit the car through the rear door window. I had to be especially careful because there was glass everywhere and I was completely barefoot.
I proceeded to the next car where we were told to jump down and walk towards the rear of the train. One of the guys that exited with me who was sitting at the back of the car gave me some socks so that I could walk on the rocks a little easier. I was the second to last passenger to walk away from the train. After walking to the back of the train we met the other passengers and told to wait for a moment while they cut through the fence so that we could exit the tracks."
After I had given all my information and all the passengers were lead out of the area to be bussed somewhere. Some were offered to be taken to the hospital but I decided that I just wanted to go home. My roommate, Michael, (who I was actually going to meet) was going by the area in a taxi at the same time I was waiting for a bus to go home. He came by and picked me up and we headed back to the apartment. Even though I was in the middle of the car, I was relatively fine. I had a couple of scratches and a few sore spots but nothing major. Most of the people that were sitting around me I was able to see that they made it out of the train (although I don’t know how injured). In the end, the car that I was in ended up half-way on top of the train it had rammed. Just by looking at the damage at the scene and the photographs afterwards, around 75% of the car was destroyed. I honestly don't know how I walked away from this. I still think that metro rail is the safest way to travel in DC but from now on I'll be sitting in the middle car of the train where, hopefully, this will never happen again."
