Photo by Rolenz.

Questions about Metrorail’s employee safety record are abounding in the wake of an incident Tuesday in which an engineer was struck by a moving train at a maintenance yard in Shady Grove. Two days later, and the cause is still unknown in an accident that left the Metro employee hospitalized with severe injuries.

Today, Metrorail said that the engineer, remains in an area hospital in critical condition. He was struck about 12:55 p.m. on Tuesday after stepping into the path of a four-car train exiting the Shady Grove facility’s car-wash station. He was pulled from beneath the lead car about 10 minutes after being struck, according to a Metro press release.

The National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Transit Administration and Tri-State Oversight Committee are among the agencies investigatinganalyzing the incident. But beyond that, Metro offered no new information on what might have caused the 28-year veteran of the transit system to be hit by a moving train.

On WAMU this morning, Jackie Jeter, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents the engineer, said the incident is a reminder of the inherent danger of rail yard work:

“If you trip and fall into the 750 volts you can get hurt. If you trip and fall into a piece of steel you can get hurt. Unfortunately, we work in a business where, if a mistake is made, that mistake can be costly,” said Jeter.

Two Metrorail workers were killed in January 2010 after being struck by a maintenance truck on a track near Rockville. And in August 2009, two workers at Metro’s West Falls Church yard were hospitalized after being hit by a two-car train.