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Post-9/11 Preparedness Led to Effective Metrorail Crash Response "As I monitored the radio traffic of the local agencies involved, I expected to hear chaos; but instead I heard the calm and ordered dispatch of emergency units and informative reports from arriving personnel." That was Daniel Kaniewski’s comment, in an e-mail interview with the Christian Science Monitor (CSM), on the quality of first response after the June 22 Metrorail train collision. Kaniewski is deputy director of George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute and a former White House senior director for response policy and special assistant to the president for homeland security. In an article on the CSM website, Dave Cook says the fatal train crash outside the Fort Totten Station in Northeast Washington tested Washington’s ability to cope with a major incident. Emergency vehicles converged on the scene in an organized fashion that “may indicate that the post-9/11 demand for better, faster emergency response is being met – at least in some of the nation's big cities,” Cook says. The Metrorail accident disrupted the daily commute for thousands in the Washington area, but what followed was "an effective regional response," Kaniewski told Cook. There was some concern, however, over Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty’s public statement about the crash, according to an article in the Washington Post. Candace Smith, a Metro spokesperson, was quoted as saying, "The spirit of cooperation is not what we would like it to be" between city and Metro officials. But as for first responders, Kaniewski was impressed with the “unified manner” in which police, fire, emergency medical services, transit, and emergency management officials worked together. To read the full article, click here:
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