WASHINGTON - The parties associated with last Monday's Metro collision are reacting after ABC 7 News reported two sources made claims that Metro engineers discovered problems with Metrorail sensors days before the crash.

Wednesday night, ABC 7 News first reported that two sources close to the investigation claim technicians found a problem with a sensor on tracks days before the train accident and they allegedly reported that problem to supervisors.

ABC 7 News approached Metro, the union that represents workers and those who ride the tracks every day to hear their reactions to these allegations.

"If they even had the information and didn't react than that is even more disconcerting," said Regina Birner, a Metro rider.

Commuter Regina Gilliam agreed. "It's just ridiculous. You know, to know something and waiting for something to happen."

The sources told ABC 7 News that five days before two trains collided on the red line and nine people were killed, several technicians discovered a problem with a Wee-Z bond, part of a circuit that communicates train speed and distance.

They say that even after it was replaced, there was still a problem allegedly. Those sources report the workers passed the information along to supervisors, maintenance operations, and it was entered into Maximo, a computer program for work orders.

"At this point we don't have any information about that and that would be a part of the NTSB investigation. Any information such as that would certainly be turned over to them as part of the investigation," said Steven Taubenkibel, a Metro spokesperson.

After the accident, federal investigators ran a test and discovered a problem with the circuit -- that it had failed to detect the presence of a train in the very same spot where the first train had stopped last week before being hit.

The union says its workers are cooperating with the investigation. "If they reported that then at point someone should've come out and taken precautionary measures to correct that circuitry," said Anthony Garland of the Amalgamated Transit Union.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have said since they started investigating the crash that they would be talking to maintenance workers and their supervisors, as well as examining maintenance logs and computer data.

The NTSB says their investigation could take as long as a year to complete.

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