The board also will also take a broader look at Metro operations and safety procedures, NTSB spokesman Terry Williams said, to see whether its policies or practices were contributing factors in the crash, which follows a string of mishaps and problems at the transit agency.
During the NTSB's probe, investigators will speak with operators, passengers and Metro officials and review records of the 72 hours preceding the accident.
Crews at the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Station use a "prime mover" on a damaged Metro car.
(Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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The agency will also look at Metro's safety policies, training and procedures and the work history of the employees involved in the accident.
"We know the system didn't work, and we're trying to find out why it didn't work," Williams said.
Investigators released details late Thursday from an interview with Lamont Lewis, the operator of the unoccupied train in the tunnel between the Woodley Park and Cleveland Park stations that slid backward at 30 mph into a train carrying 70 passengers.
Lewis, who has been a train operator for seven months, left the Woodley Park Station two minutes ahead of the other train, heading north to Cleveland Park, on a stretch of track that is on a 3.7-degree uphill grade, Hersman said.
Lewis was operating the train manually, a normal procedure for trains that are not in regular service. The train was on its way to the Shady Grove rail yard.
Lewis told investigators that soon after he left the station, he heard an alarm alerting him that the train was traveling too fast for that section of track. When he applied braking power, he did not get the response he anticipated, he told investigators.
"At some point, he said, he stopped going forward and started going backward," Hersman said.
"He then applied full brake but did not stop. He then put it in full power, but there was no response from the train. He then released the control handle, which is supposed to stop movement. Then he hit the red emergency 'mushroom' button, and then he felt a jerk."
Two minutes and 30 seconds after passing through the station, Lewis's train rolled back into it, struck the stopped train and came to a stop after the shell of its rear car climbed onto the roof of the second train.
Hersman said that "none of these things are confirmed facts, because there is no event recorder, we cannot verify these things. It is [Lewis's] representation of events."
Yesterday, transit workers had removed 10 of the 12 cars involved in the accident from the Woodley Park Station and towed them to the Brentwood rail yard in Northeast Washington, where they will be examined
The cars eventually will be inspected for damage and, if possible, returned to service, Farbstein said.
