I first saw the startling pictures of the metro crash that rocked the DC metro area last night around 6pm. And in an honest moment, I felt anger.
A few weeks ago, a lone gunmen walked into the Holocaust Museum and opened fire. All of my thoughts were for the security guard who lost his life and for those who were witnesses and victims. Anger at the shooter didn’t happen for days.
But last night, I guess I shamefully admit, I felt anger almost immediately.
The first thing I thought upon seeing the images was that someone had done something tragically wrong. My first thought was that someone, or some system, had cost people their lives. The rear train’s first car rested atop the last car of the train it hit. In order for that to happen, it seemed, the rear train had to be traveling at a rate of speed that greatly exceeded that of the train it hit. The front train probably would’ve had to have been stopped on the tracks. Subsequent reports suggest that’s exactly what happened — that the first train had stopped and, for some reason, the second train barreled into it.
As of this morning, the preliminary evidence suggests there was no attack, no malice, no hate involved, just… mistake. And I don’t know what you tell families when it’s an accident. I don’t know what I’d have done if a friend didn’t make it home because of something that appears to have been avoidable.
I know this isn’t the time to point fingers. I know there are statistics and probabilities that address the everpresent likelihood of accidents like this one. I know that for each time we step outside our front door, someone, somewhere, has calculated an expectancy for our return later that evening and that that number is never 100%. I know all of that. I know about the variables, constants and the equations. I just don’t feel comfortable with the sum of their parts.
Life is random and human error is everywhere. It doesn;t make it any easier, though.
It doesn’t. Actually, it probably makes it harder.
truth: me either.
Numbers are too incomplete to make it all better.
I think it’s because, as opposed to driving a car, or walking, or riding a bike, even though we know the risks, when we board the Metro, we put our safety in the hands of others, and we trust that they won’t make a mistake.
That said, I’d rather die as a result of a mistake, then as of a result of malice. I would not want to die knowing I was dying because someone hated me enough to kill me.
In any case — I took the Metro to work today. I will take the Metro to my part time job tonight. Because my foot hurts, I will most likely take the Metro home again tonight. Because I’m just a trusting mo-fo.
I’ll ride the Metro. No hesitation, though that may be misleading since there really are no other options. But my concern isn’t what we do now as commuters, but what happened and why and whether those in charge will do what it takes to prevent its repeat.
I’m interested in hearing what the investigation concludes- I was listening to a form NTSB investigator on NBC4 and he said that systems like the Metro have automated controls that would prevent a crash like this form occurring…
Right. What happened to that control? I’m also hearing that some critical NTSB suggestions may have been rejected.
The hardest part about telling a family their loved one died, is due to an accident. It doesn’t allow them to assign a feeling or displace that feeling. They just have to deal. It sucks.
Exactly. It doesn’t let them assign or displace feeling. There’s no “bad guy.”
It really is so much easier when there’s someone to blame. When you can point a finger.
I think that’s true in most scenarios – it allows us to channel our feelings.
The NTSB has started some early finger-pointing. If it proves true, it worries me.
I can honestly say that is one of my biggest nightmares. The fact that it’s a simple accident is sad and upsetting because it’s harder to place blame. You simply can’t. These things happen. Thankfully, it’s a rare occurrence, but sadly it happens. My heart is mourning for DC, Franco.
The weird thing is that it’s kind of not even a nightmare. I know exactly what you mean, but it’s the kind of thing that we just can’t think about, can’t worry about. Cities across the world rely on public transportation. We have to almost assume at least our safety. We don’t have any other options.
So true. We always want to find someone at fault, but sometimes things are just out of our control and happen.
Glad to hear you are ok though. So sad for those who won’t be seeing their loved ones anymore.
It’s so sad. Good to hear you’re all right, too.
I hate to quote a book in the wake of an event like this because it may come off as glib, but I can’t help but thinking of that line in Ordinary People that reads “it is chance and not perfection that rules the world”.
Easy to forget. The right clothes, the right body, the right job, the right connection… in the end we are at the mercy of a force we can’t even see.
That’s a perfect way to think about it: a force we can’t even see.
Black and white, wrong and right… is so much easier to do with than grey.
Seriously. Was there ever a time when wrong and right were really simple? Maybe as a kid… but I doubt it.
Great post, as usual. The first thing that happens when something like this occurs is that we all question what would happen if we didn’t make it out of that particular situation ourselves. Or someone we love. And that might be harder than anything else.
Yeah. I’m just trying to imagine getting the phone call that a lack of funding for brakes or something meant my [someone] isn’t coming home.
I think I know exactly how you feel, I had a similar reaction, what I kept repeating to myself over and over again was “how in the world did this happen?” “how is it possible?”
I know. It seems like there was some sort of malfunction that could’ve been avoided.
Apparently, as reported by the Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/06/23/ST2009062300980.html ) the car that crashed was 2 months overdue for breaks maintenance – maybe it shouldn’t, as maybe this was not the reason why this happened, but this makes me furious
Me, too. That’s exactly the kind of thing that bothers me.
Just because it wasn’t intentional doesn’t mean it was unavoidable.
I’m more interested in why you felt differently in the two situations. I’m not sure I’ve read that yet.
Because I know hate. I know that there’s no way we can possibly police every hateful, deliberate person with intentions to do harm. But oversights and lapses are harder. Maybe the brakes just didn’t work. That makes this an accident and I know that accidents are inevitable. But the earliest reports are that recommendations were made but either ignored or rejected because there was no funding. A lack of funding is hard to accept. It suggests the problem was an administrative one. That means the phone call to a victim’s family doesn’t say it was “a freak accident,” but “the system was dated and malfunctioned because while it needed to be updated, no one had approved the necessary money to do so.”
I think one reason it’s harder for us to reconcile an accident like this – as opposed to the shooting, for example – is that there’s no REASON for it to have happened. granted, “off-balance old fucker shot up the place” isn’t a GOOD reason for the other one, but it still explains why the loss of life occured. here we’re forced to effectively shrug our shoulders and just accept that things happen, which is somehow harder to stomach.
Exactly. That other scenario isn’t a good reason, but it somehow fits better, despite how utterly hateful it was.
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So, so sad. Things like this should NOT happen. It gives me a tummy ache.
I’m so glad you commute the other way.
It’s tough when there’s no one to blame, and it’s tough when death comes so quickly there’s no way to predict or expect it. I think it’s even tougher when these to combine.
Yes. Combined it just… it’s like an incomplete puzzle.
Good blog
These situations are really impossible. There was a metro crash here in LA several months ago and it was the fault of the operator who was distracted sending text messages. Several people died, including the operator and one of the students in my community. In that case, there was a clear person to blame, but I didn’t feel right about it not only because he was dead, but because it’s not fair that one mistake had such a tragic effect. I’ve made a million mistakes like that. We all have.
Someone was just telling me about that the other day. And you’re right it isn’t fair. It’s easier to blame a system than it is one person.