A subway train hit another on Monday evening in Washington DC, killing seven people, and injuring hundreds of others. The crash occurred during the busiest time in DC, as people are heading home. Controversy is arising after it was found that one of the trains was part of an aging fleet that federal regulators had recommended three years ago be phased out or retrofitted, a safety investigator said Tuesday. Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board said the Metrorail transit system “was not able to do what we asked them to do.” The crash sent more than 70 people to area hospitals and killed at least seven people. The crash is the deadliest in the 30-years that the Metro system has been around. The only other fatal crash occurred on January 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment beneath downtown. But, while it is confirmed that there are now at least seven dead, there were conflicting reports about the number of fatalities. DC Mayor Adrian Fenty announced Tuesday that seven had died in the crash along a part of Metro system track that carries passengers from the District of Columbia into suburban Maryland. The District of Columbia Fire Department Web site announced early Tuesday morning that three bodies had been found in addition to the six fatalities reported earlier. Fenty said two victims were hospitalized in critical condition. Hersman said investigators expect to recover recorders from the train was struck, providing valuable information that might help determine why the crash occurred. However, the train triggered the collision was part of an old “thousand-series” fleet that was not equipped with the devices, she said at a news conference.
