Crash Victims Remembered, Recount Ordeal

By Dorothy Rowley

AFRO Staff Writer

LaVonda Nicole King, 23, mother of two, and one of the victims in the deadliest crash in Metro rail history, (Courtesy Photo)

(June 25, 2009) - The last time 23-year-old LaVonda Nicole “Nikki” King‘s aunt saw her was on Saturday when the family gathered for a picnic.

But by the early morning hours of Tuesday, memories of that fun-filled event quickly faded – having been over shadowed with incomprehensible grief as King’s loved ones learned she was among the nine people killed in the worst Metro rail collision ever to occur in the nation’s capital.

The deadly crash occurred at the height of the 5 p.m. rush hour on the Red Line near the Fort Totten Station. The six-car train was headed toward Shady Grove in Gaithersburg, Md.

Seventy-six people were injured.

“It was very shocking and emotional,” Lolita Woodson said in an AFRO interview in which she recounted learning of her niece’s death. “We’re just trying to gather everything together so that we can be more at peaceful with what has happened.”

King, an aspiring beautician who balanced work and single motherhood, lived in the District of Columbia in the Kenilworth community. She was leaving work to pick up her two young sons, ages 4 and 2. Just like always, she’d taken the train, Woodson said.

According to Woodson, one of King’s co-workers told the victim’s mother that she was sure King was on the ill-fated train. King was talking to her mother as she boarded the train.

“She always called to let her [mother] know when she was on her way to pick up the boys,” Woodson said. “That’s how we knew for sure that she was on that train.”

However, Woodson said it was her brother, who had made his way to the collision scene, that confirmed King’s death.

He said her body was the last of the victims pulled from the wreckage about 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

“My brother didn’t leave until we found out where my niece was,” Woodson recalled. “He was the one that notified us because he was there.”

But Woodson said it remained unclear on which train her niece had been riding.

King was one of at least four African-Americans who perished in the wreck. The others included train operator Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va. , Dennis Hawkins, 64, and Veronica DuBose, 29, both of the District.
Hawkins was a teacher in the city and DuBose, a nurse, was also the mother of two children.

McMillan had been employed by the rail system since 2007 and was driving the cars that plowed into a stopped train.

She is being remembered as an employee who was proud of her job.

A woman who lives in the same apartment building as McMillan said she ironed her Metro uniform each night and would have done everything to prevent the collision.

"If she could have stopped the train, she would have done everything in her power," the neighbor said, adding that McMillan was a devoted mom to her 19 year-old son Jordan, who is a student at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Va.

McMillan’s sister in-law also share the family’s grief.

"Nobody's doing well at all. It's still very, very surreal," said Lisa McMillan, 39, of Hyattsville, Md. "It is a void that will never ever be filled."

Among those injured in the carnage was Jamie Jiao, 20, of Vienna. He was transported to Howard University Hospital where he was treated and released. Jiao , who still appeared shaken late Tuesday, told the AFRO that he had been on his way home from work when the trains collided. Although he sustained bruises from head to toe, Jiao said he considered himself lucky.

“After the train hit, I ended up on the roof of the train in front of me,” the University of Virginia student said in a wavering voice.

“My injuries weren’t that serious. I got cuts and scratches everywhere but I didn’t break anything,” he said. “I’ve got to get better first and then I’ll resume my internship.”

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