Does a Chicago subway derailment NTSB report provide the answer for DC’s Metro problem?

Read NTSB report on Chicago Transit Authority derailment

What happened on Monday in your Nation’s Capital has occurred a number of times in the past. Metro passengers are told to stay put for a long time in a smoke filled subway car and wait to be rescued. In this latest incident a woman died during that wait. In a similar 2000 track fire one passenger had a heart attack and it took more than three hours to complete the rescue operation.

Two passengers on Monday’s stalled train didn’t wait. According to the Washington Post’s Lori Aratani, they left the train and safely found their way out through a tunnel emergency exit. We know passengers making that decision on their own is a bad idea. That’s because once those doors open the train can’t move, eliminating the possibility of the operator taking the train away from the hazard. But what about the train operator leading the passengers to safety on foot?

Here is NTSB’s report from a 2006 subway derailment in Chicago sent to me by a STATter911 reader. That derailment caused arcing, fire and smoke. In this case, the train operator, on the radio with the a Chicago Transit Authority control center, made the decision to lead the passengers to safety through an emergency exit.

You have to wonder if a reasonable option in a case like Monday is for the operator, in touch with Metro’s Operations Control Center (OCC), to step out and check the conditions in the tunnel and evaluate the potential for leading the passengers to safety? Since the operator would be in touch with OCC, he/she could confirm third rail power is down and eliminate one of the more serious hazards the passengers from the stalled and smoke filled train could face while exiting.

Isn’t time for Metro to look hard at other options when their passengers are clearly in a life-threatening situation?