Wrongful Death Lawsuit after Fatal DC Metro Crash

Camryn Hansen

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The family of 29-year-old Veronica DuBose, who died in the horrific DC Metro crash on June 22 that killed 9 and injured 80 others, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking $25 million in damages. Dubose was the mother of two children, one 7 and one 20 months.

The DC Metro crash happened on the Red Line close to 5 pm, when a train collided with the back of another train, throwing the first car of the colliding train on top of the train in front of it. Several passengers were thrown from the colliding train in the force of the crash.

According to investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Metro transit, the colliding train’s operator was not at fault, and tried to prevent the crash by pulling the emergency brake for at least 400 feet before the two trains hit. The brake didn’t adequately respond; the train was being controlled by computer at the time.

Last week, officials determined a device in the Red Line’s crash avoidance system to have been faulty. The device, a Wee-Z bond, helps detect nearby trains and maintain safe distances between them. This particular train’s Wee-Z bond had been replaced five days before the crash, and hadn’t been functioning properly since. Investigators won’t say, however, whether this particular malfunction caused the crash. They are currently checking the entire metro system for similar malfunctions.

The wrongful death suit names defendants Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and Alstom Signaling, Inc. which is responsible for the Metro trains’ computer control systems.