Metro chief safety officer resigns following train derailment

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Metro's chief safety officer has resigned, becoming the first executive to step down after a derailment in downtown Washington that embarrassed the transit agency.

Metro's top executive said in a statement Thursday that he's accepted the resignation of chief safety officer James Dougherty.

Dougherty becomes the third person to resign after Metro revealed that the problem that led to the derailment was discovered a month before the train went off the tracks but wasn't fixed. Metro says a technician deleted information about the problem from a report, thinking it was an issue that didn't require attention. That technician and his supervisor also stepped down.

No passengers were on board the train when it derailed on Aug. 6, and no one was injured.

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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of James Dougherty's last name.