DC’s Metro revises emergency protocols after smoke fatality

The agency that operates the Washington, D.C., Metrorail subway system announced a series of changes to its emergency response protocols after a smoke incident that killed one passenger and injured about 80 others last week. 

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has come under criticism since an electrical issue on its Yellow Line on Jan. 12 resulted in passengers being trapped underground in a smoke-filled train that was heading toward northern Virginia for more than a half-hour.

The incident resulted in Metro’s first passenger fatality since a high-profile crash on the Red Line in 2009 that killed nine people and led to widespread changes at the capital-area transit agency.

{mosads}WMATA Deputy General Manager Rob Troup said Thursday that the agency was making a series of changes following the incident, including requiring train operators to turn off on-board air-intake systems that are supposed to improve ventilation for passengers. 

The air-intake was blamed for exacerbating the smoke problems that resulted in the death of Alexandria, Va., resident Carol Glover last week, because they were bringing smoke-filled air that was inside the subway tunnel onto the train while emergency personnel struggled to communicate with Metro personnel about rescue efforts. 

Troup denied the changes were directly in response to the Yellow Line smoke incident, but said they are based on recommendations that have come from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the early days of its investigation. 

“Metro and NTSB have been reviewing standard procedures and looking for opportunities to further enhance the safety of this system,” Troup said in a statement. “The ten items that we have identified so far are actions Metro is taking now based on our collaborative review with NTSB.”

“I must emphasize that these steps should not be interpreted as being related to the cause of the L’Enfant incident,” Troup said.

Lawmakers who represent congressional districts around the metropolitan Washington area have taken the transit agency to task since the smoke incident, saying that the agency’s response to the emergency situation was “unacceptable.” 

“It has become clear that communication failures were a key factor in the delay in rescuing passengers from the stopped, smoke-filled train in last week’s Yellow Line incident,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said in a statement on Wednesday after receiving an update on the NTSB investigation into the incident. 

“And it is also clear that the overall response to the fatal incident is unacceptable,” Connolly continued. “Changes must be made and made quickly. We must restore public confidence in the Metro system and be able to assure hundreds of thousands of daily Metro riders that their safety is the top priority.” 

Other changes being implemented by Metro include scheduling quarterly emergency drills that will be conducted tunnels and elevated track sections that are located between stations and installing new signs to better direct first responders who may be unfamiliar with the D.C. subway system. 

“Metro has an extensive training program for emergency responders. However, in the event that one of the trained responders is not first on scene, there will be new signage on the outside of the train to identify emergency doors and access points,” the agency said Thursday.

Metro is also revising its standard operating procedure for employees at its Rail Operations Control Center to require personnel to remain seated at their desks to avoid distracting individuals who are responding directly to emergencies and analyzing capping the speed of its trains at downtown locations to 45 miles-per-hour “to see if Metro can limit current flowing through electrical infrastructure.” 

The NTSB has attributed the Jan. 12 incident to an “electrical arcing incident” that occurred near the Metro’s L’Enfant Plaza station, a major transfer station that is located near the accident investigation agency’s Washington headquarters.

The full list of Metro changes can be read here.