More than 80 subway riders, who continue to battle smoke-related illness from last year’s Metrorail fire, filed lawsuits against system.
Dennean Baker sat rocking back and forth at the National Press Club Jan. 12, occasionally wiping a steady flow of tears. He was one of hundreds of Metrorail riders trapped in a smoke-filled train in the tunnels just feet from the L’Enfant Plaza station.
“We all thought that we was going to die,” Baker said during the press conference. “I start to cry because of my memories of the horrible time I was on the train.” Baker is among more than 80 survivors, who continue to suffer breathing difficulties as a result of smoke inhalation.
Flanked by attorneys announcing a lawsuit against Metro, Baker said she and 86 co-litigants have yet to receive notice from Metro of what toxins and other chemicals to which they were exposed. It is the lack of disclosure, one year later, that undermines their medical treatment, the lawyers said.
Passengers on the train that day were trapped for an estimated 35 minutes during which repeated announcements dissuaded them from trying to evacuate, despite growing panic.
“We were told that the best thing you can do is stay put and if you open the doors or get off the train then the train can’t move,” said Jonathan Rogers, one of the victims, during the press conference. “We were told that we’d jeopardize everybody else if we tried to get off the train so there was nothing to do but just wait and hope that the smoke didn’t get worse.”
Attorney Kim Brooks-Rodney, who is representing some of the riders, said that in addition to not knowing what toxins the passengers were exposed to and the ongoing damage they present to the riders’ bodies, there is still much confusion over what caused the accident.
“Can this accident happen again a year later? We still don’t know,” Brooks-Rodney told reporters at the Press Club.
While some passengers fled the train on their own to escape the smoke, those who remained sat through a hindered rescue process, bogged down by communication problems among EMS and Metro personnel, as well as a ventilation system that drew smoke towards, rather than away from, the choking passengers.
Carol Glover
A Black Virginia woman, Carol Glover, died in the incident. Her sons have filed a separate lawsuit.
Metro’s new General Mangaer Paul Wiedefeld has not publicly responded to the lawsuit; however, he did offer an open letter statement concerning the one-year anniversary of the accident, seeking to reassure passengers of the system’s safety.
“As the new CEO, I started the job with a mission of rededicating Metro to safety, improving service reliability and getting our financial house in order. In the area of safety, the first executive I am recruiting is a new chief safety officer, responsible for day-to-day oversight but more importantly, reinforcing a stronger safety culture throughout Metro,” the letter said.
ssherman@afro.com