More News

A 40-year-old Hyattsville woman who leaves behind six children was among nine people killed in Monday's Metro crash, a tragedy that has left her family devastated this week as federal investigators try to pinpoint what led to the crash.

Ana Fernandez's husband, Oscar Flores, leaned against a jungle gym Tuesday evening in the playground just outside of his garden-style apartment building in West Hyattsville.

As neighborhood children played in the background, family members stood alongside Flores. They were red-eyed as neighbors approached him and joined in quiet crying and offered condolences.

"She was with her children all the time," Flores said in Spanish.

Fernandez's children are ages 21, 18, 14, 12, 10 and 2, her family said.

"I was always visiting [her]," said her cousin, Jamie Salvador, in Spanish. "She was a very good mother. She worked really hard for her children."

Her brother, William Fernandez, said in Spanish that his sister had emigrated from El Salvador 20 years ago and "was a fighter and a worker."

"We are going to help take care of them," he said of the six children left behind.

William Fernandez said his sister cleaned office buildings in Washington, D.C., and was headed for work Monday afternoon from the Takoma Metro Station at the time of the two-train crash that killed nine people, including a train operator, and injured more than 70 others.

Fernandez said his sister normally returned home from work around 11:30 p.m. or midnight, but after news of the crash came out Monday, the family tried to find her. Authorities called the family around 10 p.m. Monday to tell them what had happened, he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board continued its investigation Wednesday into the cause of the crash, the worst in the 33-year history of Metro.

Federal officials said Tuesday that the emergency brake of the Metro train that slammed into a stationary train had been depressed.

In addition to the emergency brake being engaged, evidence showed that the train was operating in automatic mode, which should have prompted computers to stop the approaching train before it got too close to the stationary train, according to Debbie Hersman, an NTSB spokeswoman.

Investigators are looking at a range of possibilities, including operator error, a failure in the brakes or problems with signal relays that help run the automatic trains.

When asked if he felt WMATA or other authorities were to blame, Flores simply stated, "No. It was an accident."

"We don't know if they have the blame," Fernandez said. "Right now, we're thinking of the funeral. We may need help with it."

He said the family has been in contact with local authorities about such help, but may need more.

The office of Washington, D.C., Councilman Jim Graham (Ward 1) has been coordinating relief efforts for the family. Chief of Staff Ted Loza said the family wants to bring Fernandez's parents from El Salvador for the funeral.

"I think this would be one of the biggest sources of appeasement during these hard times," Loza said Wednesday.

Loza said his office is working to get humanitarian visas and plane tickets for the parents, but "the clock is ticking," as the funeral could be held this week.

The family also has immediate financial needs, Loza said. People donated money during a church service at National Wesleyan Church in Hyattsville on Tuesday night.

Metro has set up an emergency hardship relief fund of $250,000 to help victims with medical, funeral or other immediate expenses, according to WMATA.

Hyattsville Mayor William Gardiner said he learned Tuesday of Fernandez's death in the crash. He said the city is reaching out to churches and groups who may be coordinating assistance efforts, and a city staff member fluent in Spanish will try to meet with them to see what kind of help they need.

"There's the assumed safety of the Metro that we all take for granted, and a lot of people in the area use Metro," Gardiner said. "I hope we are able to, as a community, provide some support to the Fernandez family."

The names of all nine victims of the crash were released Tuesday, including train operator Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va.

Along with McMillan and Fernandez, also killed in the crash were District residents retired National Guard Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley and his wife, Ann, both 62; Mary Doolittle, 59; Dennis Hawkins, 64; Veronica DuBose, 29; and Cameron Williams, 37, of Takoma Park.

In honor of Wherley's service, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty issued an order for all U.S. and District flags to be flown at half-staff today at all government buildings in the District.

LaVonda King, 23, a woman with ties to the Upper Marlboro area, was also among the dead.

King's friend, Danita Delaney of the District, said when she heard about the crash, she said she started making phone calls and sending messages on Facebook to make sure her friends were OK. She said she contacted between 30 and 40 people, all of whom said they had missed the train or made other plans.

Then her phone rang around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. It was King's mother, Upper Marlboro resident Tawanda Brown, calling to tell Delaney the news.

Delaney, 40, struggled to describe the moment during a telephone interview Wednesday.

"I was … Oh God, I can't even put words to it … I was dreaming, a nightmare … I was kind of … I just can't describe the words, to describe this feeling."

Delaney started crying, and it was several minutes before she could speak again.

"I just lost my words," she said. "Oh, God."

Delaney said King had two sons, ages 2 and 3, and she was engaged to be married. She opened her own business last week, a salon in Forestville called LaVonda's House of Beauty, Delaney said. Her mother was her first customer on Friday, she said.

While investigators continued combing through the crash wreckage, a Montgomery County Council member who also served as chairman of the regional Council of Governments ripped the federal government on Tuesday for failing to modernize the cash-strapped rail system.

Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown, reading from a news story at a council meeting Tuesday morning, noted that the federal government — in this case the NTSB — had wanted to phase out the aging train cars involved in the crash, but that Metro had not heeded the cry.

"I appreciate the fact that the NTSB and the federal government said we had these recommendations, but the reality is over the years [regional governments and agencies] have worked on ways to secure adequate funding for Metro," Knapp said.

"The reality is that the participant who has not stepped up to the plate is the federal government."

During Tuesday's media briefing, Metro General Manager John Catoe called the incident an accident that "should not have happened."

The WMATA board already was scheduled to discuss $11 billion in unfunded capital improvement projects needed to make system improvements, Metro spokeswoman Angela Gates said.

Hersman pointed out that the board had recommended WMATA replace the fleet's oldest cars five years ago or retrofit it to better protect passengers in the event of a crash. Metro officials "have not been able to do that and our recommendation was not addressed. So, it has been an unacceptable status," she said.

The southbound train that crashed into the stopped train on the Red Line near the Fort Totten station was one of the oldest models of subway cars.

Metro had planned to replace the aging cars with newer models, because retrofitting them was not shown to be feasible, spokeswoman Candace Smith said.

Metro's automated software system was designed to slow the train, but passengers reported that they did not hear the brakes engaged either by the computer or the operator, who can override the automated controls.

"They need to take a really hard look to see if the cause of this is the aging of the system, either the physical system or the computer system, or the software," said transit advocate Ben Ross, president of the Action Committee for Transit.

Alstom Signaling, which makes the relay signals that help control the trains, did not return calls for comment.

The incident signals the need not just to solve the problem that caused the crash, but to invest overall in the system, Knapp said.

The federal government still has not offered a plan for an additional $150 million investment that it needs to make, Knapp said.

County Councilwoman Nancy Floreen called the crash "devastating" to the region's transportation reliability and, like Knapp, reiterated the need for more funding for the regional train system.

"This is a wake-up call to Metro," said Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park, who chairs the council's Transportation and Environment Committee. "They need to demonstrate to the region that people will be safe when they get on these trains. This is a system we all use. We're totally dependent on it."

But public transit experts said Metro and other systems are safe.

A 2008 National Safety Council study showed that subways and commuter railroads were the safest forms of transportation. There are 0.05 fatalities per 100 million passenger miles on trains, compared with 0.71 fatalities in cars.

"Public transportation is one of the safest ways to travel," said Virginia Miller, a spokeswoman for the American Public Transit Association.

Outside the Branch Avenue station Tuesday morning, Olliemae Collins, 34, of Forestville waited for her bus. She said she has been riding Metro for more than 30 years and she felt for the victims and families affected by the collision.

"It's just one of those things. I pray for the families," she said. "I will continue to ride Metro and will just try to be safe."

Moriam Ifelowo, 58, of Riverdale said Tuesday morning at the station that she was surprised to hear of the accident, as she used to live in the area and frequently traveled the route. She said her son's friend was supposed to be riding the rush-hour route in the area, but decided to work late that evening.

"Fate is unreliable," she said. "We just have to pray before we leave home in the morning."