Photo by photographynatalia.

Well, this is perfect: The failure of a “dummy truck” may be responsible for the recent Metro train derailment on the Red Line that caused commute headaches.

The Washington Post reports:

Jim Benton, chairman of the Tri-State Oversight Committee — which helps oversee Metro’s safety — said the dummy trucks “for whatever reason could have been the cause of the derailment.”

“It is one of the possibilities,” he said. “Maybe the wheels were bad on the dummy truck. All of that has to be looked at in detail.”

A truck on a rail car holds the wheels, motors and breaks. A dummy truck has no motor but is used to move trains that are not working from one area to another. Dummy trucks are similar to “a donut tire on a car,” Benton said.

Apparently, there were two dummy trucks on the six-car train that derailed on August 30, according to WAMU. There were no passengers on the train at the time.