Jury Awards $1.6 Million to Metro Rider Thrown Down When Orange Line Train Lurched at McPherson Square

On the evening of September 23, 2019, Carol W. Scott boarded an Orange Line train in Vienna, Virginia, heading for McPherson Square in downtown Washington. She was 79, rode Metro into the city once or twice a month, and carried a cane. As the train came into her station she heard the announcement, 'McPherson Square, doors opening.' She stood and started toward the exit.

The train then jerked forward with no warning. Scott lost her balance, reached for the center pole, and fell into the aisle. She had fractured her femur. By her account she lay on the floor for 30 to 40 minutes until paramedics carried her off the train, and she was taken to George Washington University Hospital. Surgeons implanted permanent orthopedic hardware in her leg. Three eyewitnesses interviewed for Metro's own accident report described the same sudden lurch, and the operator later testified that she could no longer recall the events of that day.

Scott sued the transit authority in March 2022 for negligence, represented by Patrick Regan and Christopher Regan of Regan Zambri Long. Her theory was narrow. The operator had stopped at the platform, then moved the train again before the doors opened, without first warning passengers. Metro's own Standard Operating Procedure 50 calls for an advisory warning before a train is repositioned, and a transportation safety expert, Dr. Carl Berkowitz, testified that skipping the warning violated the national standard of care.

Liability was contested through the whole case. The transit authority argued that riders accept ordinary jerks and jolts, and that Scott had been standing without holding on. In July 2024 Judge Christopher Cooper denied summary judgment to both sides, holding that the usual 'unusual and extraordinary force' test does not govern when a reasonable passenger believes it is safe to start toward the exit. Whether Scott's belief was reasonable became a question for the jury, and the court reopened discovery so the safety expert could supplement his report.

The case was tried from April 21 to 23, 2025. The transit authority, given the chance to retain a rebuttal expert, called no expert of its own. The jurors returned a verdict for Scott in a single sum of $1.6 million, rejecting the defenses of assumption of risk and contributory negligence.

In August 2025 the court denied the transit authority's motions for judgment as a matter of law, a new trial and a reduced award. Judge Cooper wrote that the evidence showed a painful injury, extensive surgery and rehabilitation, a continuing need for a cane, balance and lower back problems, and the loss of activities Scott had enjoyed, including gardening and the travel to Native American reservations that her work with veterans once required. He called the award 'generous perhaps' but not one that shocks the conscience.