Buffalo-raised train operator hailed as hero in D.C. Metro train crash
Mourners at service honor selflessness of ex-area woman
WASHINGTON — The Buffalo native who died Monday at the controls of a Washington Metro train received a hero’s farewell four days later, as family, friends and city leaders recalled the brave last act of a life well led.
As Jeanice McMillan saw her computer-powered train barreling at full speed toward a train stopped on the tracks ahead, she pulled the emergency brake, John B. Catoe Jr., general manager of Washington’s Metro system, said Friday.
While she couldn’t prevent tragedy, “I believe when the investigation is over, it will be determined that she saved lives,” Catoe told a crowd of hundreds gathered in the Temple of Praise, the church McMillan faithfully attended. “She was able to slow that train up before it crashed.”
Bishop Glen Staples, McMillan’s pastor, agreed.
“It takes someone of incredible courage not to lose it in the face of danger,” Staples said. “She rode the brakes all the way to heaven.”
Early news reports had indicated that McMillan, 42, could have been at fault for the crash — and even hinted that she might have been texting just before the collision.
But Metro officials said her cell phone was found in her backpack.
And the National Transportation Safety Board announced Thursday that when investigators tested an automated train control system that should have stopped the trains from colliding, the system failed.
Since McMillan had pulled that brake when she saw her train rushing toward a collision, “we will honor her as a Metro hero,” Catoe said. “She will always be in our hearts.”
Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty also paid tribute to McMillan, saying, “As a city, we know that we lost a fantastic public servant.”
McMillan, a Turner-Carroll High School graduate who attended Niagara University, moved to the Washington area about eight years ago, following her brothers, Gerald Jr. and Vernard McMillan, to the nation’s capital.
At first she worked for the U.S. Postal Service but then joined the D.C. Metro system in 2007, winning a promotion to train operator last December.
That explained the presence of numerous postal workers, along with dozens of others in blue Metro uniforms, at Friday’s service.
Yet the focus was on the tight-knit McMillan clan, several dozen strong, including her parents, Gerald and Betty Mc- Millan of Buffalo.
Before the service, Vernard McMillan fought off tears as he told members of the media about his sister.
“Jan, as our family calls her, is irreplaceable,” he said. “She will truly be missed by everyone she touched.”
In the program for the service, Vernard McMillan described her as “the sister in control of the situation,” a woman with an amazing ability to win friends.
“Even your friends became her friends,” he said.
McMillan’s 19-year-old son, Jordan, described her as “a powerful woman, an incredible mom.”
Jordan told the crowd that he never would be ending his first year at Virginia Union University if it weren’t for the sacrifices she made for him.
And he never would have done so well in school if it weren’t for his mother, Jordan said — recalling that she insisted that he go to school even on days when they returned at 2 a. m. from weekend family visits to Buffalo.
“She was there for me for everything,“ he said. “If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know where I’d be.”
Staples, the minister, acknowledged that McMillan’s sudden death at such a young age would be hard on all those that loved her.
“God, as we stand here before you, this is one of those difficult days,” he said. “Only you can help now. Only you can fix it now.”
But for McMillan, Staples stressed, everything already is fixed.
“Because she really knew God, her life is just beginning,” he said.
A funeral for McMillan will be held next week in New Mount Ararat Temple of Prayer, 983 Jefferson Ave. in Buffalo, which is accepting flowers and cards in her name.
Contributions can be made to Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, 2701 Whitney Place, Forestville, Md 20747.
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