Monroe Chat

To read that the potential cause is a faulty outdated train, makes the fatalities and injuries rather more difficult to bare.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The subway train that plowed into another stopped train, killing at least seven people and injuring scores of others in the nation's capital, was part of an aging fleet that federal officials had sought to phase out because of safety concerns, an investigator said Tuesday.
But the Metrorail transit system kept the old trains running despite warnings in 2006, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The rush-hour crash sent more than 70 people to hospitals. Mayor Adrian Fenty announced Tuesday that seven had died, including the operator of the moving train. Earlier, the District of Columbia Fire Department Web site announced that three bodies had been found in addition to the six fatalities reported Monday.
Fenty said two victims were hospitalized in critical condition.

(AP) Investigators and officials continue to work at the scene of a rush-hour collision between two...
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Hersman said investigators expect to recover recorders from the train that was struck. The train that triggered the collision was part of an old fleet that was not equipped with the devices, which can provide valuable information to determine why the crash occurred, Hersman said.
She told The Associated Press that the NTSB had warned of safety problems and recommended the old fleet be phased out or retrofitted to make it better withstand a crash. Neither was done, she said, which the NTSB considered "unacceptable."

For complete story: http://apnews.myway.com//article/200906 ... EL6G2.html