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Will deadly Metro incident make you reconsider using Metro?

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January 13, 2015 at 11:48 a.m. EST
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Images from the smoke-filled train and rescues at L’Enfant Plaza station in 2015

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WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 12: Passengers react Monday afternoon as smoke filled a Metro train in a tunnel outside the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station. (Saleh Damiger)

Commuters returned to the rails Tuesday morning after Metro’s first fatal incident involving a passenger since 2009.

Some passengers, such as Kim Green, a medical assistant who lives in Greenbelt, were nervous about boarding a train one day after a passenger died and more than 80 were injured in a smoke incident at L’Enfant Plaza.

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“I am riding on faith this morning,” she said. “What is going on? Why in the heck was there smoke? That makes me afraid. There’s just no protection on these trains. I need to know what happened. It does make me nervous.

But other passengers said Monday’s tragedy didn’t greatly alter their perception of safety on the rails.

“I feel much safer on Metro than driving,” said Pat Hastings, an Army colonel who moved to the Washington area four years ago. “Yesterday was a tragedy, absolutely, and it’s horrible that it occurred… but I still feel that Metro is safer than any other way of getting around town.”

Will you change your Metro usage?

Will Monday's deadly Metro incident make you reconsider how often you use Metro?

This is a non-scientific user poll. Results are not statistically valid and cannot be assumed to reflect the views of Washington Post users as a group or the general population.

DeNeen L. Brown and Joe Heim contributed to this report.

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