Metro worker killed, another injured

One Metro worker was killed and another was critically injured when they were struck by a train on the Yellow Line yesterday morning.

Leslie A. Cherry, a 29-year Metro employee, and another Metro worker were inspecting the roughly half-mile stretch of elevated track between the Huntington and Eisenhower Avenue stations in Alexandria when they were hit, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.

Mr. Cherry, 52, of Maryland, was killed. He was planning to retire in February, a co-worker said.

The four-car train, which was empty and not in service, was headed to the Alexandria rail yard from the Huntington station at about 9:30 a.m.

Mr. Cherry was a track walker whose duties included cleaning and clearing the tracks and checking for damage to the rails.

The injured employee, whose name was not released, has been on the job since April. He was hospitalized in critical condition, Miss Farbstein said.

“Everyone here is rather broken up about it, to say the least,” she said.

Mark Rosenker, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said the workers knew they were on an active track.

Mr. Rosenker said investigators retrieved the train’s vehicle monitoring system, which he compared to an airplane’s flight data recorder. He said the board would retrieve the dispatch tapes today and predicted the tapes would help shed light on what happened.

Train service was stopped between the Braddock Road and Huntington stations for much of the afternoon while the NTSB investigated. Service resumed just after 3 p.m.

In the interim, shuttle buses took passengers to and from the Braddock Road, King Street, Eisenhower Avenue and Huntington stations.

Metro is conducting an internal probe. The train’s operator, a Metro employee since 1999, was taken for mandatory drug and alcohol testing.

“Obviously, something terrible has gone wrong,” said Jack Requa, acting general manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

The employee fatality is Metro’s second this year and the third in the past 14 months.

In October 2005, Michael Waldron, 47, was hit by a train while working on Yellow Line tracks near the Braddock Road station and died two weeks later. It was Metro’s first workplace fatality in eight years.

In May, an automatic train control technician was working with two other employees inside the southern tunnel to the Dupont Circle Metrorail station when he was struck and killed by a Red Line train headed for the Glenmont station. Jong Won Lee, 49, of Springfield, had been a Metro employee since 1999.

In Metro’s 30-year history, 14 employees have died on the job, six since 1981.

“One is too many,” Miss Farbstein said.

After Mr. Lee’s death, Metro announced a “safety blitz” campaign with stronger enforcement of procedures and policies. Since June, more than a dozen safety officers have been conducting spot checks of Metro work sites.

All track workers must call in their positions on the tracks hourly. Trains, which usually travel at 15 to 59 mph, now must reduce their speed to 15 mph when approaching track work sites.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.