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Train Operator Says Technical Malfunction Caused Collision

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By David Schultz

The collision took place just before 4:30 a.m. Sunday morning, at the end of the operator's ten-hour shift. The empty six-car train he was driving slammed into the back of another empty train parked at the Falls Church Rail Yard. Jackie Jeter, the head of Metro's employee union, says the operator "is claiming that there was a surge that took place on the train."

The train operator and two other Metro employees suffered minor injuries in the crash. Metro isn't releasing their names.

This is the fourth time a Metrorail employee has been injured or killed on the job since the June 22nd crash on the Red Line that killed nine. Jeter says working for a train system comes with an inherent level of danger. "When you work on a transportation system you are never going to be 100 percent without any incidents occurring at all," says Jeter. "It's never going to happen."

A Metro spokesman would not comment on the train operator's claims.

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