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On January 21, 2010, The Baltimore Sun reported that the Maryland Board of Public Works approved a $1.5 million settlement in the case of two teenagers who were hit and killed by a light rail train in July in Lutherville, Maryland.

The two teenage boys, both 17, were fatally struck July 5 by a northbound train while walking along the tracks that are normally used for southbound operations. The Maryland Transit Administration had switched northbound traffic onto the tracks because of an earlier act of vandalism on the northbound tracks. The operator of the train that struck the boys apparently did not notice them on the tracks and did not stop the train. Another train later passed the scene of the accident without noticing the bodies on the tracks. The bodies were later discovered by a fare inspector from a third train that came upon the scene.

Maryland Transit Administration Police began an investigation, but Baltimore County police took over at the request of relatives of the victims. While the county police ruled the boys’ deaths an accident and no criminal charges were filed, an MTA internal investigation led to the firing of two train operators and disciplinary action against six other employees.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Federal investigators concluded in draft findings presented in Washington that the Metrolink train in the 2008 Chatsworth catastrophe ran a red light and that the accident would not have happened if the passenger train engineer had stopped as required. Investigators have said telephone records indicate the Metrolink engineer was text messaging on a cellphone at the time of the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing to discuss the findings, but agency staff said it concluded that witnesses who said the signal appeared to be green were not reliable. The approximately one-mile distance to the signal from the station, where the witnesses were located, combined with lighting conditions and human limitations contributed to the finding, officials said.

Testing and records from various signals, the system dispatch center and video from the Union Pacific freight train that collided with Metrolink 111 all support the conclusion that the final signal passed by the commuter train was red, officials said.

The draft findings also concluded that if high-tech collision avoidance technology had been in place, it would have intervened and prevented the accident, according to the NTSB staff.

During the week of December 14, 2009, Metro fired the employee who was operating a train when it crashed into a parked train at a Northern Virginia rail yard in November, injuring three workers and causing at least $9 million in damage.

Metro has been conducting an internal investigation of the November 29 crash at the West Falls Church rail yard. The National Transportation Safety Board is so investigating the early-morning incident, which injured the train operator and two rail car cleaners who were aboard the parked train. Metro reported at the time that the employees suffered bumps, bruises and cuts. Metro officials said the operator was tested for alcohol and drugs, but the agency has not released the results.

The train operator, who had been on the job for about a year, had worked for Metro since 2007, officials said. Metro did not release the name of the employee, who had been on paid administrative leave. Officials have said the operator was at the end of a 10 1/2 -hour shift when the crash took place.

Two cars derailed in the crash and all 12 rail cars involved were damaged. Officials have been assessing their condition. Metro operates cars as pairs, and officials have said it is likely that the mates of each of the three cars damaged beyond repair will also be inoperable. New cars cost about $3 million each, so damages could total as much as $36 million.

The accident was the fourth involving Metrorail workers since the June 22 crash on the Red Line that killed nine people. In August at the same rail yard, two Metro mechanics were hurt when a two-car train struck the rail cars they were working on. A Metro worker was struck and killed by a piece of track equipment August 9, and a worker was fatally injured by a train September 10.