Metro trains in Washington on Monday, with scores more injured, CNN
affiliates reported.
WJLA and WUSA attributed the information to officials for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
Commuter traffic along the Red Line, where the crash happened, will be "severely" affected Tuesday, officials said.
By late Monday, emergency crews had switched to recovery operations after halting rescue efforts.
One of the dead was the operator of one of the trains, transit
authority officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board was
investigating.
The crash occurred just before 5 p.m. on an
above-ground track in the District of Columbia near the border with
Takoma Park, Maryland.
Both trains were on the same track, and
one of them was stationary when the crash happened, said John Catoe,
Metro general manager.
A total of 76 people were treated for injuries at the scene,
including two with life-threatening injuries, said Chief Dennis Rubin
of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department for the District
of Columbia. Two of the injured were emergency responders, Rubin said.
Four people were taken to Providence Hospital in Washington,
including two with back injuries, one with a hip injury and one
complaining of dizziness from hitting her head, hospital officials said.
Washington Hospital Center said it had received seven patients from the
crash with non-life-threatening injuries, ranging from serious to
minor. One person needed surgery. Howard University Hospital reported
three patients from the crash and Suburban Hospital in Maryland said it
had two.
One car was "about 75 percent compressed," and recovery workers aren't sure if any more bodies are inside, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Monday night.
"We just haven't been able to cut through it to see if there's bodies in there," Fenty said.
"The scene is as horrific as you can imagine," Fenty said in a news conference. "One car was almost squeezed completely together."
A
certified nursing assistant who was on one of the trains told CNN
affiliate WUSA she was trying to help those in severe condition after
the crash, including a lady who appeared to be in her 20s.
"She
is very, very torn in her legs -- the muscles and everything are torn,
ripped through. She had metal pieces in her face," said the nursing
assistant, who said her name was Jeanie.
Other witnesses described seeing more blood than they had seen before.
