everyone probably already knows about the horrific red line accident yesterday afternoon. i have nothing to add to the coverage of the incident; i haven’t regularly ridden that stretch of the red line since i moved out of silver spring in 1995. i don’t ride the metro rail much anymore at all, but many of my loved ones do, and the knowledge that this could happen to them is sobering. until we learn more, there’s no reason to think that this type of accident couldn’t occur anywhere along metro’s 103 miles of track or at any time of day. (however, i’d like to see a beltway vs. metro comparison of fatalities-per-passenger-mile-traveled. my hunch is the beltway’s considerably more dangerous.)

lacking a direct connection to the accident (although several work colleagues called me to make sure i wasn’t on the metro), i immediately started thinking about the administrative details that would need to be handled. the investigation. the impact on metro ridership. and whether metro will provide psychological counseling to the survivors of the accident. even if this is handled as well as humanly possible, i don’t see how it won’t generate at least a few lawsuits.