Nine Dead in 2009 Fort Totten Metro Collision: Regan and Zambri Secure Confidential Settlements Against WMATA and Three Equipment Makers

Around 5:00 p.m. on June 22, 2009, a moving Red Line train, train 112, struck the rear of stopped train 214 between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations in Northeast Washington, D.C. The lead car of the striking train overrode and telescoped on top of a car of the stopped train, destroying survivable space and killing nine people, including train operator Jeanice McMillan and eight passengers. About 80 other riders sustained injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that a faulty track circuit had suffered parasitic electrical oscillations that left the stopped train invisible to the automatic train control system.

Wrongful death lawsuits were filed on behalf of all nine families in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, consolidated under a single multi-case proceeding. Patrick Regan and Salvatore Zambri of what is now Regan Zambri Long served as lead attorneys for families of the victims, litigating within the consolidated docket alongside other plaintiffs' counsel.

The defendants included the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Italian company Ansaldo STS USA (which supplied control software and equipment), Maryland-based ARINC (which provided the train-detection warning system), and Alstom Signaling (which manufactured the circuit that failed). In February 2012, all four defendants filed documents in U.S. District Court stipulating to liability in the remaining cases, citing the 'significant risks and costs associated with litigating those highly-contested and technical issues.' That admission effectively foreclosed the liability phase of any remaining trials.

Seven of the nine wrongful death cases settled by early 2012. Settlement terms were confidential. News coverage at the time noted that outcomes in comparable transit-accident cases had been in the millions of dollars. The remaining two wrongful death cases, including one representing a mother of six, were characterized by Regan as 'very substantial.' Those matters resolved in subsequent proceedings, with all cases ultimately concluded by 2013.

The litigation unfolded alongside sweeping safety reforms at WMATA, including the eventual retirement of the older 1000-series railcars in response to NTSB recommendations and the agency's documented failures in track-circuit maintenance and safety culture.