Sunday · September 27, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
20091776 Club

Two Red Line trains collide near Fort Totten; nine are dead, more than 80 hurt

A moving train struck a stopped one at 44 mph, and investigators point to a track circuit that has been invisible to the automated control system since a replacement five days ago.

Rush hour on the Red Line was running normally until it wasn't. At approximately 5:02 PM on June 22, 2009, a moving Metro train slammed into the rear of a stationary train between Fort Totten and Takoma stations in Northeast Washington, D.C., at roughly 44 miles per hour. The collision killed nine people — including Train 112's operator, Jeanice McMillan, who had applied the emergency brake before impact — and injured more than 80 others. The cause was a malfunctioning track circuit that had been invisible to investigators since a routine replacement five days earlier, leaving the ATC system blind to the stopped train ahead…

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