A frightening overnight collision inside Washington, D.C.’s Metro system left 11 people injured early Wednesday after a maintenance vehicle slammed into a stopped commuter train in the heart of downtown, sending fresh concerns through a city that depends on public transit to keep moving.
According to transit officials, the crash happened shortly after midnight when a work vehicle struck a Silver Line train that had been sitting at Metro Center station.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said all 11 reported injuries were non-life-threatening, though officials did not immediately release more information about how seriously the victims were hurt.
Even without fatalities, the incident was serious enough to rattle the system well into the morning commute. Riders were warned to brace for delays as emergency crews and investigators worked to sort out what went wrong and clear the damaged area. With part of the system disrupted, some trains were forced to share a single track through the affected zone, creating a ripple effect that slowed service across the network.
For a city where thousands rely on Metro every day, the crash quickly raised urgent questions about safety, oversight, and how a maintenance vehicle was able to collide with a stationary train in one of the system’s busiest central hubs. So far, officials have not said why the work vehicle entered the track or what led up to the impact.
The cause remains under investigation, but for many commuters waking up to the news, the incident is likely to deepen concerns about whether the region’s transit system is doing enough to protect passengers and workers alike.
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