WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Metro train slammed into the back of a stopped train on the Red Line during the height of rush hour Monday afternoon, killing at least nine people and injuring 76 others in the deadliest crash in the transit agency's 33-year history.
"The scene is as horrific as you can imagine," D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said in a news conference . "The one car of the train squeezed almost together."
Fenty also confirmed there were six fatalities. The D.C. Fire department is still going through the wreckage and it will be a few hours before the total number of casualties is confirmed, Fenty said, indicating the total number of fatalities could rise.
"It is my preliminary understanding that this is ... the deadliest accident in the history of" Metro, Fenty said earlier, in a news conference shortly after 7 p.m., about two hours after the trains collided. "We want to express our condolences to all the family members... Our hearts go out to the many loved ones."
D.C. Fire and EMS Chief Dennis Rubin said six people were dead; six patients had life-threatening injuries, 14 had moderate injuries and 50 people had minor injuries -- "walking wounded", Rubin said.
Two D.C. firefighters involved in the rescue efforts suffered minor injuries Rubin said. It was unclear if those two injuries were included in the earlier total he gave.
Rubin said firefighters were still clearing the last two cars, the most severely damaged ones.
People are still being pulled from trains, Fenty said. ABC 7 News has learned three people are believed to still be trapped on the train. More than 200 firefighters were called to the scene.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators are on scene. Their investigation will begin once D.C. Fire and EMS has cleared the scene.
The crash around 5 p.m. EDT took place on the system's red line, Metro's busiest, which runs below ground for much of its length but is at ground level at the site near the Maryland border.
It happened near where New Hampshire Avenue crosses over the tracks.
Metro General Manager John Catoe said one train was stopped short of the Fort Totten platform and was waiting for another train to clear the station when it was struck from behind by another train. It's unclear why the driver of the second train did not stop.
Catoe said the female operator of the second train was killed in the crash.
District residents seeking information on family members who may have been involved in the crash should call 311. People outside of D.C. should call 202-737-4404.
District of Columbia fire spokesman Alan Etter said crews were cutting apart the trains to get people out in what he described as a "mass casualty event." Rescue workers propped steel ladders up to the upper train cars to help survivors escape. Seats from the smashed cars had spilled out onto the track.
Passenger Jodie Wickett, a nurse, told CNN she was seated on one train, sending text messages on her phone, when she felt the impact. She said she texted someone that it felt like the train had hit a bump.
"From that point on, it happened so fast, I flew out of the seat and hit my head." Wickett said she stayed at the scene and tried to help. She said "people are just in very bad shape."
"The people that were hurt, the ones that could speak, were calling back as we called out to them," she said. "Lots of people were upset and crying, but there were no screams."
One man said he was riding a bicycle across a bridge over the Metro tracks when the sound of the collision got his attention.
"I didn't see any panic," Barry Student said. "The whole situation was so surreal."
Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said less than two hours after the crash that federal authorities had no indication of any terrorism connection.
The only other time in Metrorail's 33-year history that there were customer fatalities was in January 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment between the Federal Triangle and Smithsonian Metro stations underneath downtown, the Associated Press reported.
Train traffic has been stopped in the area. Metro set up shuttle buses but anticipated major delays.
Republished with permission of WJLA-TV.
