CNN: Metro driver hailed as hero

[Toe Jam]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/26/dc.train.driver/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of Washington's mass transit system praised as a "hero" the driver who was killed in Monday's crash when her train struck another that was parked on the tracks.

"She saved lives," said Metro General Manager John Catoe at a memorial service Friday for Jeanice McMillan.

click link for more

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

It didnt mention anything in the article about what she did to save the lives :whoknows:

[Dan T.]

The front page of Washington Post yesterday had a riveting, heartbreaking account of what it was like for the people in the first car of the train that she was driving.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702417.html

Ordinary people acted heroically and with compassion in the face of a horrible disaster. Well worth the read.

[Dan T.]

It didnt mention anything in the article about what she did to save the lives :whoknows:

She stayed at her position until impact trying to slow/stop the train. Once she knew impact was inevitable, she could have left the controls and run for the back of the car. In that case, she may have survived. People in the back of the front car of her train did survive. Instead, she rode the brakes until the end. It guaranteed her death, but lessened the force of the collision, likely saving lives.

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

She stayed at her position until impact trying to slow/stop the train. Once she knew impact was inevitable, she could have left the controls and run for the back of the car. In that case, she may have survived. People in the back of the front car of her train did survive. Instead, she rode the brakes until the end. It guaranteed her death, but lessened the force of the collision, likely saving lives.

Wow.

[Dan T.]

I urge people to read the WPost article I linked to in post #3 above. Eli Saslow has written one of the most compelling newspaper articles I have read in a long time.

[Heisenberg]

I urge people to read the WPost article I linked to in post #3 above. Eli Saslow has written one of the most compelling newspaper articles I have read in a long time.

Thanks a lot for the link.

You were right - it was a very good article. Very sad.

[kuraitengai]

She stayed at her position until impact trying to slow/stop the train. Once she knew impact was inevitable, she could have left the controls and run for the back of the car. In that case, she may have survived. People in the back of the front car of her train did survive. Instead, she rode the brakes until the end. It guaranteed her death, but lessened the force of the collision, likely saving lives.

but arent the metros supposed to have a dead mans switch or something that if the drivers hand leaves the grip, the brakes automatically engage? i know that other metros have that. and if that were the case, had she told everyone to vacate the first car and led them to the back of the train, the brakes would have engaged automatically the second her hand left to escort the people back.

[Dan T.]

but arent the metros supposed to have a dead mans switch or something that if the drivers hand leaves the grip, the brakes automatically engage? i know that other metros have that. and if that were the case, had she told everyone to vacate the first car and led them to the back of the train, the brakes would have engaged automatically the second her hand left to escort the people back.

I don't think there's a dead man's switch on the Metro trains. Accounts have described a mushroom-shaped emergency brake button that was in the engaged position, which indicates that she tried to brake the train. As to evacuating the passengers, that would have been impossible. She had seconds to react. An evacuation would have taken, what? a minute or more at least. The point is that evidence shows in those last seconds, she stayed at her post rather than make a mad dash for the back of the train.

[Dan T.]

From the Washington Post article linked to in post #3 above:

Ride the Metro long enough and it becomes like sleepwalking: Trees on the right, a blur of graffiti on the left, a subtle bump-bump-bump of the car so predictable that it somehow becomes relaxing. The operator came over the speaker system and said something about a delay, but his iPod muffled her announcement. The train slowed and accelerated, stopped and started, and all the while he kept reading.

But then, panicked shouts came from the front of the car.

"Oh no. Watch out!" one passenger shouted.

"Oh my God!" screamed another.

Bottoms instinctively grabbed the handrail of the seat in front of him, heard a shrieking crunch of metal, was thrown forward in his seat and saw something coming toward him that at first didn't make any sense. It was a jumble of dust, shoes, glass, seats, carpeting, Metro maps, metal poles and people. It was the front half of Car 1079. But in the first instant, it appeared as a rolling, roaring wave that was coming closer and closer. Carpeting near Bottoms's feet began to rise up and crumple like tissue paper. The wave swept within 15 feet in front of Bottoms . . . 10 feet . . . 7. A studied theologian and an experienced chaplain, he recited a simple prayer.

"God, make it stop."

"God, make it stop."

The wave crested against the seat directly in front of Bottoms, and a cloud of dust enveloped him as the train rocked to a halt. Bottoms stood up, scanned the car and tried to understand what had just happened. Had the train derailed? Had it fallen off a bridge? Had it hit something? He looked in front of him. Where was the floor? He looked up. Where was the roof? Why, as the cloud of dust settled, was he sitting at an incline, staring at a cloudless blue sky, and at another train stretching down the tracks, and at a man on the roof of that train covered in soot and dangling his legs over the side of the car as if perched on the edge of a swimming pool?

Chaos now, everywhere. Jamie Jiao, the man sitting on the roof of the train, who moments before had been the college intern lost in thought near the front of Car 1079, felt something wet under his chin and realized he was bleeding. Baker, the doctor, searched what was left of the floor for his glasses. Brianna Milstead, 17, frantically gathered the scattered contents of her makeup kit. A young woman looked down to see that the tattoo on her ankle was gone, along with most of the skin on her lower leg. A 15-year-old boy squirmed in his seat and froze suddenly when he realized that his legs were stuck between the buckled floor and jagged metal.

Bottoms sat back down in his seat, stunned. All at once, he heard the sounds. A wailing rush of hysteria.

"Mommy! Mommy! Ohmygod."

"Somebody help! Please. My foot's stuck."

"Baby, where are you? Are you okay? Baby? Baby?"

He understood now that he was in the only section of the car that remained intact. Six or seven other passengers were there, too, and in front of them was the pile of wreckage, from which a new sound emerged. It was a young woman's voice, quiet at first and then louder, until finally it eclipsed the rest of the noise and echoed off the walls, a chilling, panicky shriek.

"I'm here.

"I'm here.

"Please don't leave me."

* * *

Bottoms crawled up the pile toward the voice, scraping his knees against jagged glass and metal. He paused for a second, worried that his extra weight might cause the pile to shift, but what was an extra 150 pounds on a mountain of wreckage? Two tours as a chaplain in Iraq had instilled in him the instinct to comfort the injured and dying. Years ago, when he first joined the service, a mentor had told him: "You don't let anyone suffer alone."

[Toe Jam]

The front page of Washington Post yesterday had a riveting, heartbreaking account of what it was like for the people in the first car of the train that she was driving.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702417.html

Ordinary people acted heroically and with compassion in the face of a horrible disaster. Well worth the read.

Wow. There are no words.

[Dan T.]

Wow. There are no words.

I can't remember the last time I read such a riveting newspaper article. The comments section accompanying the article is filled with similar accolades...

Well done, Eli Saslow...

[sacase]

The front page of Washington Post yesterday had a riveting, heartbreaking account of what it was like for the people in the first car of the train that she was driving.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/27/AR2009062702417.html

Ordinary people acted heroically and with compassion in the face of a horrible disaster. Well worth the read.

Amazing and sad story that's all there is to say.

[Enter Apotheosis]

I can't remember the last time I read such a riveting newspaper article. The comments section accompanying the article is filled with similar accolades...

Well done, Eli Saslow...

Seconded, that was indeed an excellent piece.