Metro Will Revise Emergency Response Procedures

between Greenbelt and College Park on July 3 causing passengers to begin an impromptu disembarkation, followed three days later by a , Metro officials have said they need to revise their guidelines for emergency situations.

The Washington Post reports that Dave Kubicek, the transit agency’s deputy general manger of operations, said Thursday that Metro would take measures to improve emergency responses.

The train derailment was reportedly caused by excessive heat that formed a kink in the tracks.

However, the bigger issue than the derailment and technical problems was the communication breakdown, Metro board members said, according to The Post.

“We have a good capacity to deal with engineering problems, but I’m not sure we have advanced in dealing with communication and human-reaction problems,” Board Member Kathy Porter told The Post.

Kubicek attributed some of the communications issues to the train operator, who was dealing with several problems at the time, but The Post reported that officials did not realize a communications tower had also lost power, adding to the delays.  

Committee member Tom Downs told The Post that the issue of not knowing part of the communications system was down is one that needs to be quickly addressed.

Additional re-evaluations of criteria to reduce train speeds during extreme weather conditions, like last week’s heat wave, will be made as well, The Post reports.