Reflections on the Red Line Metro Crash

It wouldn't seem right not say something about the metro crash here in DC. I'm not sure I can add much to the conversation, except to point out the obvious: sober looks on the metro, metro operators arguing about what went wrong, the metro headquarters bathed in black banners.

The Washington Post did a powerful feature worth your attention here.

But let me just give two of the strong human interest anecdotes included in the story, which profiled each of the nine dead:

LaVonda "Nikki" King, 23, of Northeast Washington

LaVonda "Nikki" King, 23, of Northeast Washington had boarded the Metro chattering away about her new career. She was on the phone with her mother, talking about the fliers she wanted to make to promote her new business, LaVonda's House of Beauty.

"I was talking to her as she entered the train," said her mother, Tawanda Brown of Upper Marlboro. "She was so excited. She had so many dreams about the salon." King had signed the paperwork for the Forestville salon space just Friday and was headed to pick up her sons, ages 2 and 3, from day care.

When Brown saw the crash coverage on TV, she knew: "My daughter's on that train." She spent a sickening night visiting six hospitals before authorities knocked on her door at 3 a.m. to tell her King was dead.

Dennis Hawkins, 64, of Washington

Scores of children in different parts of the District were affected by the loss of Dennis Hawkins, 64, of Washington.

Hawkins had no children of his own, but he was beloved by kids at the school where he worked and in the church where he taught, friends and relatives said.

He was on his way from work at Whittier Education Center in Northwest Washington to teach vacation Bible school in Ivy City when he was killed in the crash.
...
Members of Bethesda Baptist Church waited and waited for their Bible school teacher to arrive Monday night. Cobb's grandmother was enrolled. Finally, word from Hawkins's family reached a church official. And they began to mourn.

Nicole Clifton, principal at Whittier, said Hawkins was a retired teacher who worked as Whittier's right-hand man.

"He was the heartbeat of the school. He was my go-to person," Clifton said.