Metro Trains Collide | Deadliest Accident in Metro History – Investigators continue to scour the scene of the rush-hour collision in northeast Washington D.C. as they search for a cause of the deadliest accident in Metro history.

On Monday evening about 5:00 p.m., an inbound Metro train on the red line ran into a six-car train which was stopped as it waited for another train to clear a station. It hit with such force that the first two cars were pushed into the air. Debbie Hersman, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board said, “It is a scene of real devastation” and that it was too soon to know if the conductor was distracted or if the trains were manually or automatically driven at the time of the crash.

Metro Trains Collide in Deadliest Accident in Metro Histroy

Hersman also said that investigators expect to recover recorders from the train that was struck, providing valuable information that might help determine why the crash occurred. However, she said that the train that triggered the collision was part of an old “thousand-series” fleet that was not equipped with the devices. In 2006 the National Transportation Safety Board recommended removal or refitting of the fleet of trains.

According to Metro spokeswoman, Candace Smith, four bodies were removed from the wreckage on Monday and five on Tuesday, bringing the total to nine people killed in the collision. About 20 people were taken to area hospitals with two remaining critical.