Per BBC News just now on tv, there may still be people trapped inside.
I was hearing that a few hours ago, around sundown, but wasn't sure whether it was still the case. I'm still hearing helicopters going overhead quite a bit, could be medics or police.
I can't for the life of me figure out how it would've happened. There are supposed to be automatic relays to stop trains from getting to close to each other. And the it looks like the second train was moving really fast:
But even if the signal system failed to stop the train, the operator should have intervened and applied emergency brakes, safety experts familiar with Metro's operations say. The position of the second train after the crash -- the fact that its first car came to rest atop the other train -- indicates that the second train was traveling at high speed. In the section of track where the accident occurred, the maximum speed is supposed to be 58 mph. Metro officials would not say how fast the trains were going because of the ongoing NTSB investigation.
I watched part of the NTSB briefing, and the board member said she didn't know whether it was going to be possible to tell how fast the train was going, because she wasn't sure what kind of equipment was on the trains in question, or whether it survived the crash. I'm reading that the Red Line is the oldest of the system's lines, and the trains may have more outdated equipment than the newer ones on, say, the Green Line.
The Moorgate tube crash was a railway disaster on the London Underground, which occurred at 8:46am on 28 February 1975. A southbound train on the Northern Line (Highbury Branch) crashed into the tunnel end beyond the platform at Moorgate station. Forty-three people were killed at the scene, either from the impact or from suffocation, and several more subsequently died from severe injuries; the greatest loss of life in peacetime on the London Underground, and the second greatest loss of life on the entire London Transport system (the first being the 7 July 2005 London bombings). The cause of the incident was never conclusively determined.[1]
The Moorgate tube crash was a railway disaster on the London Underground, which occurred at 8:46am on 28 February 1975.
A southbound train on the Northern Line (Highbury Branch) crashed into the tunnel end beyond the platform at Moorgate station. Forty-three people were killed at the scene, either from the impact or from suffocation, and several more subsequently died from severe injuries; the greatest loss of life in peacetime on the London Underground, and the second greatest loss of life on the entire London Transport system (the first being the 7 July 2005 London bombings). The cause of the incident was never conclusively determined.[1]
