D.C. Metro Train Accident--Profits Over People Again: Train Car Needed Maintenance and Replacement With A Safer Train Car
Like many citizens of the D.C. metropolitan area, the negligence attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC are following the developments of the recent horrific D.C. Metro train crash that has so far claimed nine lives.
The complete facts concerning why the June 22, 2009 D.C. Metro Red Line train wreck occurred will not likely be known for several months. What is now know, however, does not inspire confidence in those running Metro for nation’s capital.
For example, news reports indicate that in 2006, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) advised the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA)—the authority that operates Metro—to replace the model of the train that caused this deadly train wreck. The reason for the recommendation: there was a concern that the train car would not be safe in a collision.
Then, there is the issue of routine maintenance that was not performed on the lead car of the striking train. News reports indicate that the lead train car was to have had new brakes and brake components installed approximately two months ago.
Metro has not commented on whether the non-replaced train cars, or the overdue maintenance, had any role to play in the tragedy. As to replacing the older train cars, with news trains, the Metro leadership decided not to make the changes because of cost and complexity.
This tragic accident that has resulted in at least nine deaths highlights what we have observed for years: corporations place profits over people. Metro could have done better for its riders, but it did not. Jeanice McMilian, David Wherley, Ann Wherley, Lvonda King, Dennis Hawkins, Marry Doolittle, and Anna Fernandez paid the ultimate price. We send our deepest sympathies to their families.
Jack D. Lebowitz
Vadim A. Mzhen
