WMATA crash

WMATA crash, tv coverage
Originally uploaded by rllayman

Not knowing about the crash, but just a few minutes afterwards I left my house to (bike) ride to a meeting in Hyattsville (via Riggs Road). Responding emergency vehicles passed me on Blair Road and New Hampshire Avenue, near the Fort Totten Metro Station.

By the time I got to my meeting at a restaurant, with television sets on the wall, television reporters were on the scene and I happened to look up to see the story.

I WAS IMPRESSED WITH HOW BAD THE COVERAGE WAS--at least on Channel 5 (Fox). They did not convey the most basic information--which direction were the trains going, what was the last station the trains were at, at what time did the crash happen?

Even though it was within the first hour, there is no excuse for reporters to not know what the most important questions are, and to gather and convey the information.

They misreported that the crash occurred between Fort Totten and Brookland. It happened between Takoma and Fort Totten. And you could tell this was likely so based on the buildings in the background as shown in the video coverage. They identified New Hampshire Avenue as Michigan Avenue...

So I was frantic, wondering if Suzanne was on the train (she wouldn't have been, as the crash was between Shady Grove-bound trains), and trying to reach her. Had it been reported at what time the crash occurred, in what direction the trains were bound, I could have allayed my worries, although I eventually reached her. Of course, my problems and concerns were meaningless, by comparison to those people in the crash.

After I came back from the meeting a few hours later, I was surprised to see a Maryland State Highway Administration emergency truck loaned to DC, operating at Peabody Street and New Hampshire Avenue, a couple blocks from the crash, and so I turned and decided to check out the scene.

I lack special equipment for night photography (I was there after 9 pm and it was dark), so I don't have any good photographs. You couldn't get that close, but an alley behind the houses on Oglethorpe Street NE enabled some sight of the crash site, and you could see a Metro car from the second train on top of the first train. But my shot of it, in my photostream, looks like abstract art.
The brown in the photo is of the middle section of subway cars, the part that is painted brown.