W&M Student Killed in D.C. Train Accident

By Chris Weidman, of the W&M Flat Hat Monday, July 05, 2010

The College of William and Mary law school community is mourning the loss of a rising third-year student who was killed early Sunday in a Washington, D.C. train accident.

Joseph Doyle was struck and killed on the Washington, D.C. Metro at 3 a.m. Sunday, according to Vice President for Student Affairs Virginia Ambler. Doyle was killed as he was attempting to switch from one train line to another.

According to the Washington Post, a male was struck by an Orange Line train at 2:55 a.m. at the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station. The report stated that the male was trapped under the Orange Line and needed an “extremely technical rescue.” D.C Fire/EMS spokesman Pete Piringer said the victim, who was not identified in early reports, was transported to a trauma center with life-threatening injuries.

Doyle completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia and graduated on the Dean’s list in 2004 with a degree in English Language and Literature. He was a member of the law school’s William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal and was spending the summer working at the Washington, D.C. law firm of King & Spalding. He was planning on studying in Spain this fall in an exchange program.

According to Ambler’s e-mail, Davison Douglas, Dean of the Law School said, “Joe was a superb law student with a very bright future. He had a particular interest in election law — he served as Vice President of the Law School’s Election Law Society, worked for the Virginia State Board of Elections after his first year of law school, and had been a field organizer for Brad Carson’s U.S. Senate campaign in Oklahoma in 2004.”

Doyle was a native of Oklahoma.