(The NTSB issued the following on April 6, 2011.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of the NTSB’s investigations into three separate accidents that occurred on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) system between November 2009 and February 2010, today the NTSB opened the public accident dockets for these cases.
The accidents include:
– A collision that occurred on November 29, 2009, at the WMATA West Falls Church station where a six-car train struck the rear of a stopped six-car train. Three employees sustained minor injuries.
– An accident that occurred on January 26, 2010, approximately 0.9 miles north of the Rockville station when two WMATA Metrorail automatic train control maintenance technicians were struck and fatally injured by a hi-rail vehicle.
– A derailment that occurred on February 12, 2010, when WMATA Metrorail train 156 derailed the front set of wheels on the first car near the Farragut North station. No injuries were reported.
The information being released is factual in nature and does not provide any analysis. The dockets include investigative group factual reports, exhibits, interview transcripts, photographs, and other documents from the investigations. Additional material will be added to the dockets as it becomes available. Analysis of the accidents, along with conclusions and a determination of probable cause for each accident, will be released at a later date when the final report on each investigation is completed.
This will be a document release only; no interviews will be conducted.
The dockets can be found on the NTSB’s website at
www.ntsb.gov/Info/foia_fri-dockets.htm.