Photo by Rachel Frankel

Earlier today, the L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station turned briefly chaotic when five people were injured while riding an escalator down to the platform for the Orange and Blue lines. Metro officials have pinned the accident on a woman’s bag or clothing getting snagged on a metal panel, causing the panel to detach from the escalator’s base. But at least one Metro customer who rode the same escalator right before the accident that sent three people to the hospital says differently.

In an email to DCist, Metrorail rider Rachel Frankel says that the metal panel was already loose as she descended to the platform.

“This siding did not get caught on someone’s bag or clothing and ripped up,” Frankel says. “It got caught against a women’s leg and tripped her.”

The woman who got caught on the metal strip fell, and her tumble caused the other four victims to take a spill. None of the people injured suffered serious injuries, Metro officials said this morning. But the transit authority said that the incident began because the woman’s bag or article of clothing was hooked on the panel.

Frankel’s version does not corroborate that. She also spoke with WTOP, which found similar accounts to hers. “My fiancé and I had passed by around 8:25 and you could hear it banging,” another customer wrote in a tweet.

Some Metro officials see that this morning’s accident as a sharp reminder to focus on safety issues. “We have had a streak recently of a few [incidents] running together,” Jim Dyke, a Metro board member, told WTOP. “Clearly we have more work to do.”