Remembering the deadliest subway accident 15 years later – NBC4 Washington

June 22, 2009 was a day of immeasurable loss for nine families and a day when the subway and transportation in the Washington area changed forever.

At around 5 p.m., at the height of rush hour on the Red Line, a train traveling at about 45 miles per hour crashed into the rear of a stationary train between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations.

Nine people died, including the driver of the striking train, and dozens more were injured, some seriously. The accident remains the deadliest in the history of the metro.

NBC Washington looks back 15 years later at the devastating crash and its lasting effects.

“Words cannot describe what I saw”

The horrific accident occurred due to a malfunction of the sensors in the metro tracks. The crashing train thought the tracks ahead were clear, although they were not. The speeding train blindly sped towards a train on the same track that was stopped on a curve.

The driver of the striking train had only seconds to react and press the emergency brake. But it was too late.

On News4 that day, people who survived the crash described what they had seen.

“There was a sudden bang that threw us backwards and then forwards… People were confused and crying,” said one survivor.

“Words cannot describe what I saw. I just kept praying and hoping that God was with all the passengers,” said another.

“I never really found closure”

Even 15 years later, the victims’ families still feel the emotional scars of the subway disaster.

Veronica Dubose was riding the Red Line that day. She was the 29-year-old mother of an 8-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter, on her way to her first day of nursing school. She was riding at the front of the first car that struck the rear of the stationary train, killing her.

Her son, Raja Williams, recently told News4 that “his whole life changed” that day.

“My life was simply different – ​​until today,” he said.

After the accident, he and his sister Ava were raised by their grandmother Carolyn, who moved the family from DC and memories of that day to a quieter setting in Culpeper, Virginia. But even many miles away, the loss is profound for the siblings.

“I just found a way to deal with it. It’s not really closure. I could have a breakdown at any moment and I don’t even know why,” Raja Williams said. But later that day I thought, ‘Damn, that’s why.’ I never really got over it.”

Ava Dubose, who was just one year old when her mother was killed, can remember her family’s tears that day. “That was my whole life,” she said.

“Not my baby”

On the day of the accident, Veronica Dubose’s mother, Carolyn Jenkins, was in the hospital for a medical problem. She had seen images of the wreckage on television. But she had no idea that her daughter had been on board the train.

Jenkins’ youngest daughter, Monica Cochran, learned the terrible news from the police and made her way to the hospital to tell her mother.

“I said, ‘But Mom, I have to tell you something.’ I tried to keep my composure. … I said, ‘Remember how you keep talking about the train accident? Veronica was on the train.’ At that point I started crying,” Cochran recalled.

“And she said with the same reaction as me: ‘What hospital is she in?'”

“And I said, ‘Mommy, Veronica didn’t make it. Veronica died in the train accident.'”

“My mom ripped out the IVs and ran down the hall screaming and crying, ‘Not my baby!’ I think that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life: telling my mom that my sister died,” she said.

Carolyn Jenkins, who still raises her daughter’s children in Culpeper, said she thinks about her late daughter every day.

“I miss her so much. She and I were very close… I have my chair adjusted so that I am always looking directly at her picture,” she said.

What traffic officials say then and now

The National Transportation Safety Board criticized Metro’s safety culture after the accident, saying, “Metro was on a collision course long before this accident.” The NTSB said Metro had developed a culture that did not put passenger safety first.

Metro’s current leader, General Manager Randy Clarke, was not with Metro at the time of the accident. But he said he is committed to putting that tragic day far behind him. Riding the Red Line with News4, he mentioned several key changes over the past 15 years, including:

• Establishing systems to ensure knowledge is retained even when employees retire
• Digitization of records to enable data analysis
• Improving employee training
• become more transparent

“Trust ultimately comes down to transparency. I think that’s what we’re working on,” Clarke said.

The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission was created specifically to keep a direct eye on Metro safety, with enforcement authority vested in the WMSC, said the commission’s Max Smith.

“The previous regulator could raise an issue. It could be fully supported, but it didn’t have the authority to make sure it really stuck and was addressed,” he said.

Metro and WMSC now have multi-layered security protection.

There hasn’t been a death on the system due to a direct safety problem in more than nine years, when an electrical fire near the L’Enfant Plaza station filled a tunnel with smoke and killed a 61-year-old woman.

Clarke said it was important to put the Metro’s recent safety history into perspective.

“We are either leading or above average in all safety criteria for a rail network in the country – so arguably the safest rail network in the country. Does that mean we are perfect? ​​No. There will be things that happen… Even if we have a problem with the metro, we do not have crises or catastrophic incidents,” he said.

A daughter and mother lost

Right next to the Red Line accident site is Legacy Memorial Park, a beautiful memorial to the nine victims.

Tawanda Denise Brown lost her 23-year-old daughter Lavonda Nikki King in the crash. Brown was instrumental in the creation of the park.

She said the accident seemed like it happened only yesterday.

King was on her way home from handing out flyers for her new business: her own hair salon. She was in “a pretty joyful moment of her life,” her mother said. “Other than the birth of her two children, I had never seen her so ecstatic,” her mother said.

That changed suddenly.

King’s son and two sisters met with News4 at Legacy Memorial Park, standing in front of a granite block bearing their names. They found it difficult to talk about all they had lost.

“I know she was a beautiful woman. She was a hard worker. Everyone loved her and I know I would have loved her if she was still here,” said King’s son Andre King.

Keonda King, one of King’s sisters, said she is struggling on the 15th anniversary of her sister’s death. She said even the sight of a subway or bus is traumatic for her.

“I’m afraid of the train, I’m a bit shy. I don’t take the metro. I don’t like the metro. When I see the metrobus, I get angry. I have a bad feeling about the metro. I hate the metro now. They took away my sister, someone I needed in my life,” she said.

All of the family members News4 spoke to say their memories of 2009 prevent them from riding the subway.

I’m looking forward to

To date, Metro has not yet put the trains back into computer-controlled automatic mode, in which they essentially drive themselves. This is despite the fact that the accident was blamed on a track defect and not Metro’s automatic train control system.

The transport company’s goal is to return parts of the system to automatic operation next year.

In addition, the current Metro boss says that today’s system is different from the one in 2009.

“Thanks to that hard work, we are now in a much better position. The key is that we can’t go back,” Clarke said.

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Nevertheless, June 22, 2009 remains an incredible nightmare for those who experienced it or lost their loved ones.

Brown, who lost her daughter in the crash, read aloud the words engraved on the memorial to the crash victims.

“Embrace peace, love, courage and strength,” she said. “A legacy begins within yourself.”

Click here to read more stories from our NBC Washington Rewind series, where we look back at some of the most important news stories from our region through unforgettable NBC4 footage from decades past.