Regulators Eye Subway Standards After D.C. Accident

Federal investigators are looking for recorders or other devices that could tell them how fast a Washington subway train was going when it plowed into another train, killing nine and injuring scores of others during the height of Monday's afternoon rush hour.

National Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday the train may have a recording device that would give its speed at the time of the crash and whether it was being operated manually or automatically when it hit the other train Monday in the nation's capital.

During Tuesday's morning rush, Metro officials warned commuters to expect delays throughout the system. Service on MARC's Brunswick line in Maryland was suspended, and auto traffic was being rerouted several streets in Washington were closed.

Debbie Hersman, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said Tuesday that it had "made recommendations to various entities," including the metropolitan and federal government, to improve safety standards.

Nine people were killed and scores of others were injured, some seriously, in the accident along a part of Metro system track that carries passengers from the District of Columbia into suburban Maryland.