WASHINGTON - Crews dismantled the wreckage Tuesday from a subway train collision that killed nine people and injured scores of others in the nation's capital, and a federal investigator revealed an old train involved in the crash should have been replaced because of safety concerns.

Investigators used a crane and power tools to pull apart the twisted remains of the two trains, looking for any mechanical, electrical and computer failures.

Nine people died when a six-car Red Line train dating from the 1970s rammed a more modern train near the Fort Totten station during the height of the evening rush hour Monday. More than 70 people were hurt, including at least two who remain hospitalized in critical condition.

Jeanine McMillan, 42, the operator of the striking train, was killed in the crash.

Metro said the victims were two men and seven women, all adults. That includes 42-year-old Jeanine McMillan, who was driving the striking train.

Metro officials identified four more victims Tuesday afternoon: Mary Doolittle, 59, of Northwest D.C.; Ana Fernandez, 40, of Hyattsville, Md.; Dennis Hawkins, 64, of Southeast D.C.; and Lavonda King, 23, of Northeast D.C. The D.C. National Guard confirmed that Major General David Wherley (ret.) was killed in the crash, as was his wife, reportedly.

The investigation Tuesday was proceeding along two lines: detecting any potential problems with the Metrorail system and any potential human errors.

NTSB investigators will be interviewing survivors of the crash, including Jamie Jiao, who was riding in the first car of the striking train.

The University of Virginia student from Reston saw the crash coming.

"We stopped for a bit and the conductor announced we were stopping for a train in front -- happens all the time," he recalled. "And I was sitting pretty much up the front so I could see the train in front for a split-second before we crashed."

Jiao suffered an injured foot, back sore, and cuts to his face -- but he is alive and for that he is grateful.

"I was in the front, where the train split apart," he recalled "I only realized later my shoes were gone, my glasses were gone and my lower back was hurting."

One thing emerging from witnesses is that deceased operator of the so-called striking train was aware that a train had stopped ahead. Investigators want to know why she didn't manually stop in time, even if an automated system designed to prevent collisions failed.

"Our operations team is going to be looking at the train operators, their training, any records, how long they’ve been with WMATA and we're also gonna putting some preservation orders on some of the perishable evidence, such as cell phone records and texting records," NTSB board member Debbie Hersman said.

»More information has come to light about train operator Jeanice McMillan.

»Watch the Tuesday morning press conference with D.C. officials and the NTSB here.

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That is in addition to a thorough examination of the trains, rails and systems themselves. Sources have said it appears a combination of system failure and possibly human error led to the collision. There has been speculation about distractions or a medical emergency, but at this point nothing has been ruled in or out.

"That's why we're here. We’re going to be conducting a very thorough investigation," Hersman said.

Hersman said investigators expect to recover recorders from a newer train that was stopped along the tracks waiting for another to clear the station ahead. But the old train that barreled down the tracks and triggered the collision was part of aging fleet and not equipped with the devices, which can provide valuable information on the cause of a crash.

Hersman told The Associated Press that the NTSB had warned of safety problems and recommended the old fleet be phased out or retrofitted to make it better withstand a crash. Neither was done, she said, which the NTSB considered "unacceptable."

Metro officials planned to replace the old trains, but were years away from actually having them on the tracks.

The operator of the train that collided into the stopped cars was identified as Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va., according to Metro officials.

McMillan was hired in March 2007 as a bus driver and was tapped to become a train operator in December, but it wasn't immediately clear whether she had control of the cars.

Metro has a computerized system on most trains during rush hour that is supposed to control braking, speeds and prevent collisions. The system, however, has failed before.

In June 2005, in a tunnel under the Potomac River, a train operator noticed he was getting too close to the train ahead of him even though the system indicated the track was clear. He hit the emergency brake in time, as did the operator of another train behind him.

Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith didn't know the outcome of the investigation into that incident, which she called "highly unusual."

The crash Monday occurred on the red line near the D.C. and Maryland border, in an area where higher train speeds are common because there is a longer distance between stops. Trains can go 55 to 59 miles per hour, though the train's speed at the time of the accident hasn't yet been determined.

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.

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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