2nd Metro Worker Dies From Nov. 30 Accident

Matthew Brooks was inspecting tracks when the train hit him. (AP)

A second Metro employee who was hit last week by a Yellow Line train died yesterday, transit officials said.

Matthew Brooks, 36, of Waldorf, was one of two track inspectors hit by a four-car train Nov. 30 near the Eisenhower Avenue station.

The other worker, Leslie Arvell Cherry, 52, who was known as Arvell, died on the day of the accident. Both were struck from behind.

Funeral services for Cherry were held yesterday at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Upper Marlboro. The services were private, but about 200 Metro employees attended.

The accident is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. Last week, NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker issued a strong rebuke of the transit agency's safety record, calling the succession of fatalities involving Metro trains and employees "unacceptable."

Yesterday's death was the fourth in 14 months.

Federal investigators reenacted the accident Wednesday, conducting tests for nearly three hours, officials said.

The accident occurred about 9:30 a.m. as the empty four-car Metro train was being taken out of service. It was leaving the Huntington Station at the end of the Yellow Line and headed toward Eisenhower Avenue on its way to the Alexandria rail yard.

Investigators have said it was traveling at 39 mph, according to the train's event recorder. The operator sounded her horn 12 seconds before the accident, from a distance of 600 feet, and a second time about 1.5 seconds before impact, from a distance of 50 feet. She then applied the brakes, officials have said.