Juxtaposition: Red line crashes in DC

bioephemera — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:23:00 +0000

Red Line crash, June 22, 2009, between Takoma Park and Fort Totten stations
Photo from Fox5 News, via DCist

As many of you already know, DC's Red Line suffered a fatal crash this evening during rush hour. One train had stopped. A second train behind it failed to stop, overtook the first train, and ran up on top of it, shearing off the front end of the first car and crushing the last car of the first train underneath. It is still totally unclear how or why this happened.

The second train's driver is deceased, as are at least five others (the situation is being updated as I write this). About 70 people were injured. Fortunately, the trains were inbound - coming downtown to pick up commuters - so they were fairly lightly loaded. During the evening rush hour, one expects outbound Red Line trains to be packed with hundreds of commuters. I commute on the Red Line every day, and I am still in some shock at how many more injuries there could have been if the trains had been outbound shortly after 5pm (or inbound in the morning).

This is not the first accident on DC's Red Line. Although WMATA actually has a fairly good safety record, in 2004 there was a strikingly similar accident in which one train rode up on top of a second.

Red Line crash, November 4, 2004, at Woodley Park Zoo station
photo by Michel Ducille, Washington Post, 2004

Red Line crash, November 4, 2004, at Woodley Park Zoo station
photo by Gerald Martineau, Washington Post, 2004

In that case, a parked train began rolling backward down a grade and crashed into a train parked in the Woodley Park Zoo station. It's remarkable how similar the images of that crash are to the images of today's crash; basically, the main difference is that the 2004 crash was underground, in a station, while today's crash was outside.

My heart goes out to my fellow Red Line passengers and to the drivers of the red line trains. I know I must have taken trains with the driver who passed away many times. To the families of the victims, many people are thinking about you and your loved ones tonight. We are so very sorry.

Update: The Washington Post is now saying that 9 people lost their lives in yesterday's wreck. (Earlier today the total went back to seven, but now seems to be at nine again.) In addition, they have a new photo gallery that more clearly shows the damage to the trains. You can see in these new photos that most of the damage was confined to the top car - instead of squishing the car below it, its floor was ripped out, and the sides "telescoped" around the newer train in front/underneath. This also suggests why the top car stayed aligned with the train underneath, instead of derailing as one might intuitively expect: it was partially wrapped around the car underneath it, which was still on the rails.

bioephemera Mon, 06/22/2009 - 14:23

Eerie toyscapes

bioephemera — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:31:09 +0000

Eerie toyscapes

These eerie photos by Alin Dragulin are exactly why tilt-shift photos are sublime. The toy-like cars and buildings seem cute and nostalgic, but the lack of focus traps the viewer in a claustrophobic middle ground, with no idea what story is transpiring. And why does everything seem so still? It's like a childhood memory written by Stephen King.

I asked Alin if he used a digital tiltshift filter to create the Toyscapes, and he said:

The Toyscapes are taken with a 4x5 camera and traditional film. I shoot digital for much of my work but these series of photos MAKE me slow down and be still. Even if I could I wouldn't do it digital.

Via the excellent Today and Tomorrow

bioephemera Tue, 05/12/2009 - 14:31