'Hindsight 20/20' for Metro Chairman after crash

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of Metro's Board is opening up about changes that possibly should have been made following the deadly crash on the Red Line earlier this week.

On "WTOP's Politics Program with Mark Plotkin," Jim Graham says changes "should have been considered" to Metro's oldest rail cars that were involved in Monday's accident.

The so-called "1000 series rail cars" have been deemed weaker than the rest of the rail fleet. Following the crash, Metro is readying a plan to move those cars to the middle of trains, not running them on the front or the back.

Graham admits that idea should have been thought of sooner.

"It should have been considered. Hindsight is 20/20."

The 1000 series rail cars are being singled out, not for being the cause of the crash, but for their "crash worthiness" or their ability to withstand impact.

Graham also admits that there may have been a feeling within Metro that the agency's computerized anti-crash system was fail-safe.

"I know that there was considerable reliance on the fact that we have a collision-free system. That this doesn't happen."

But the crash did happen and now Metro leaders are left wondering why their anti-crash system failed.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday Metro's signaling system failed to detect a "test-train" stopped on the same stretch of track where this week's deadly crash occurred.

Investigators say they are still examining the crash site to understand how the train control system functioned on Monday.

Nine people, including the train's operator, were killed.

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