9 fatalities confirmed in D.C. Metro train crash

WASHINGTON -- Nine fatalities have been confirmed in the worst accident in the history of Washington's Metro subway system, authorities said Tuesday morning.

The updated casualty count came after rescue workers toiled through the night and into daylight this morning near the D.C.-Maryland line, where a Metro train rear-ended a stopped train during Monday evening's rush hour.
A spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which operates Metro, confirmed shortly after 10:30 a.m. that the death toll had reached nine. Among the dead was the operator of the train that crashed into the stopped train. Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va., had been a Metro train operator since 2007. Identities of the remaining victims have not been released.


The victims included seven women and two men, according to Candace Smith, a Metro spokeswoman. Smith said aournd 11:15 a.m. that recovery operations have concluded; five bodies were recovered Monday and four more on Tuesday, she said.

Earlier, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said that two people remain in critical condition at local hospitals. A total of 76 people were treated at local hospitals. A third injured passenger has been upgraded from critical condition, the mayor said at a morning news conference not far from the crash site.

Although the D.C. Fire Department has worked throughout the night, the scene is still being processed as a rescue effort, Fenty said.

A heavy crane was brought in during the night to assist with the rescue operations. The first car of the train that rammed into the stopped train was as much as 75 percent compressed in the accident, according to D.C. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin.

Debbie Hersman, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the crash-worthiness of subway train cars has been a concern of the NTSB for some time.

Hersman, recently nominated by President Barack Obama to head the board, said at the news conference that the federal government had made crash-worthiness recommendations to make sure that train operators and passengers are protected as much as possible.