Driver of D.C. train in deadly crash loved her job

WASHINGTON - The woman at the controls of a transit train that plowed into another would have done anything to prevent the accident, friends and relatives said Tuesday, a day after the crash killed her and eight others.

Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va. was a devoted mom to her college-age son and while she had struggled financially, she loved her job ferrying commuters and tourists around the nation's capital, those who knew her said.

Investigators were looking at why a computerized system failed to halt the train and why other safeguards, including a manual emergency brake, did not work.

Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said there has been no indication that McMillan was sending text messages or talking on a cell phone, which contributed to passenger train crashes in other cities, though federal investigators were checking her cell phone records to be certain.

McMillan also was known to sleep at the office after her shift ended occasionally, and she was finishing up her work week. While investigators have not suggested fatigue played a part in the crash, they were reviewing McMillan's schedule in the days leading up to the crash as a routine part of the probe.

Friends and relatives were just trying to deal with the loss of a woman who took great pride in a job they never considered dangerous.

"Nobody's doing well at all. It's still very, very surreal," said Lisa McMillan, 39, who lives in Hyattsville, Md., and is married to the train operator's brother, Gerald, 41. "It is a void that will never ever be filled."

McMillan, a Buffalo, N.Y., native, moved to the Washington area about a dozen years ago, her family said. She worked for the U.S. Postal Service for several years before joining the Metropolitan Washington Area Transit Authority in 2007 as a bus driver. Officials say she became a train operator in March.

McMillan was killed driving the first train on her 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift, said Aicha Mezlini, a neighbor who has known McMillan since 2005. She and other neighbors said McMillan's schedule had just changed so that she was wrapping up her work week Monday.

Ayesha Thomas, a Metro employee who worked with McMillan, said her colleague would often work the late shift and didn't have a car. If McMillan didn't have a ride home, she would sleep at Metro's offices and then take the first train home and come back into work later that day.

"She was a great, humble person," Thomas said.

Another neighbor, Leeza Kanwal, said the train operator would go out of her way to help others, such as helping Kanwal carry groceries and tote laundry while Kanwal was pregnant.

"I've seen her come home from work and be really tired and see that I needed help," Kanwal said. "I wouldn't do that after a 10-hour shift at work."

Those close to McMillan said her 19-year-old son Jordan, meant everything to her. Family members said he attends Virginia Union University in Richmond, Va.

One of McMillan's neighbors said she was proud of her job and was a meticulous mother who ironed her Metro uniform every night.

"If she could have stopped the train, she would have done everything in her power," said Joanne Harrison, who lives across the hall from McMillan.

She put a note, decorated with purple ribbons and hearts, on McMillan's door.

"Your friendly smile and your appealing welcome will always be dear to our hearts," the note said. "Don't you worry, we will take care of Jordan, your only child, your only love."

Passenger Maya Maroto, 31, was riding on McMillan's train.

"We were going full speed _ I didn't hear any braking. Everything was just going normally. Then there was a very loud impact. We all fell out of our seats. Then the train filled up with smoke. I was coughing," Maroto said.

Maroto, of Burtonsville, Md., said there was confusion after the impact because no announcements were immediately made. She said some passengers wanted to climb out, but others were afraid of being electrocuted by a rail.

Tijuana Cox, 21, was in the train that was hit. She had her sprained arm in a sling Tuesday.

"Everybody just went forward and came back," with people's knees hitting the seats in front of them, said Cox, of Lanham, Md.

The only other fatal crash in the Metro subway system occurred Jan. 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment. That was a day of disaster in the capital: Shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the 14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff from Washington National Airport. The plane crash, during a severe snowstorm, killed 78 people.

In January 2007, a subway train derailed in downtown Washington, sending 20 people to the hospital and prompting the rescue of 60 others from the tunnel. In November 2006, two Metro track workers were struck and killed by an out-of-service train. An investigation found that the train operator failed to follow safety procedures. Another Metro worker was struck and killed in May 2006.

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