Metro News Release

For immediate release: November 3, 2006

Metro Moves to Create Memorials, Scholarships In the Name of Fallen Employees

Metro is working to create not one, but three memorials and a scholarship fund in the name of fallen employees.

“We will create two memorials; one, which would be housed at Metro’s downtown D.C. headquarters, and a second located at the Carmen Turner Maintenance and Training Facility in Landover, MD. That memorial will be part of the training program and a reminder of the lessons to be learned regarding the seriousness of the work the employees perform,” said Tangherlini.

Tangherlini also has proposed a national memorial at Metro Center that would be dedicated to transit workers around the country who have died on the job.

“The creation of these memorials will give us the opportunity to recognize those who made the ultimate sacrifice and remind us daily of the risks we take to serve this region,” Dan Tangherlini, Metro’s Interim General Manager.

Metro is looking to unveil the memorials next summer. The estimated cost is $150,000, which includes $50,000 for the two memorials and a $100,000 initial contribution for the scholarship fund.

The transit agency’s Board of Directors in July approved creating the fund for minor dependents of employees who die on the job and a standing memorial to the deceased employees.

Metro also is partnering with Community Foundation of the National Capital Region to establish the scholarship fund. The partnership will allow for contributors to make tax deductible donations. Further details on donations to the scholarship fund will be available at a later date.

Thirteen Metro employees have died on the job in the agency’s 30-year history. The most recent was automatic train control technician Jong Won Lee, 49, of Springfield, VA., who was hit and killed by a Red Line train May 14 at Dupont Circle station. Lee’s death inspired the creation of the memorials.

News release issued on November 3, 2006.