Industry · Other

WMATA

Robot types: Automation operator / site. Risk band: Elevated RobotRisk index 23.2/100 (severity- and time-weighted incidents) · ranked 22 of 40 among Other companies with incidents (142 tracked).

Analyst brief

The record spans three entries across a sixteen-year window: a fatal 2009 Fort Totten Red Line collision attributed to an automatic train control track circuit failure (severity 5), the resulting 2009 systemwide suspension of Automatic Train Operation (severity 5, regulatory), and a January 2025 entry of 217 station overruns following ATO reactivation on the Red Line (severity 2, malfunction). The record combines one historical fatality-and-regulatory-response pair with a recent, lower-severity operational recurrence tied to the same automated train control function.

Risk index

23.2/100RobotRisk index

23.2/100Median index across the 40 Other companies with incident history (142 tracked, 102 with none)

22 of 40Rank in Other (of 40 with incident history)

ElevatedRisk band

Products and robot types

Industries: Other

Risk is scored per product and robot type: each incident is attributed to the product it names, or to the company's matching robot type.

Robot type	Share of company risk	Rank within type
Automation operator / site	100%	6 of 13

Incident timeline

Comparisons over time

Per-type breakdown

Incident type	Unique incidents	Share
malfunction	1	33%
fatality	1	33%
regulatory	1	33%

Unique incident list

3 unique incidents on file for this company.

Sev	Date	Type	Location	Incident	Source
S2	~Jan 2025	malfunction	Washington, DC, USA	217 station overruns after ATO reactivation on Red Line · 217 overrun events, Red Line fleet	Railway Track and Struct
S5	22 Jun 2009	fatality	Washington, DC, USA	Fort Totten Red Line collision (ATC track circuit failure) · 2 trains / 1 fatal collision	NTSB
S5	~Jun 2009	regulatory	—	WMATA suspends Automatic Train Operation systemwide after Fort Totten crash · fleet-wide, ~15 years	Railway Age