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MBTA, FELA & MASSACHUSETTS RAILROAD ACCIDENTS
On March 20, 2008, two MBTA Green Line trains trains collided near the Boylston Street T station, in Boston. As a result of the accident, nine injuries were reported and passengers were taken to the hospital. Two of those saying they were injured were train operators and one was a Green Line official who happened to be on one of the trains. The crash happened about 8 a.m. and MBTA officials said one trolley rear-ended another. One of the cars became derailed upon impact
On March 25, 2008, a “runaway freight car” rammed into an MBTA train injuring 150 passengers and crew members. An alert engineer halted the train before impact, preventing what could have been far more serious injuries, officials said. The crash occurred about a half mile north of the Canton Junction station.
"We knew we were coming into Canton Junction and suddenly the train stopped," said Tony Phillips, a 42-year-old passenger who works for a Boston advertising firm and lives in Stoughton. "All the sudden, there was a bang, a huge explosion. People were screaming 'Oh my God, what happened?'"Everyone on the train who was standing fell to the ground, Phillips said. Dozens of emergency workers carried passengers and crewmembers away from the tracks on stretchers, rushing them to area hospitals. Nearby residents saw passengers walking through the adjacent woods with head injuries, some spouting blood, looking dazed.
Some of the hurt passengers were taken to the hospital when emergency workers from around the region ran out of ambulance space. "The lady in front of me was thrown forward pretty hard and she broke her nose and had a serious cut to her face," said Terrence Jackson, a 43-year-old passenger from Brockton. "Everybody did their part. I helped in the woman in front of me. The passengers that were less injured or weren't injured helped people that were hurt."
BOSTON WOBURN TRAIN ACCIDENT FATALITIES DUE TO HUMAN ERROR
A dispatcher's error in managing train traffic, apparently caused by confusion over two work crews in the area, is the focus of a federal probe into a fatal commuter train crash, an investigator said.Ted Turpin of the National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday that the investigation has narrowed to the dispatcher's handling of the work crews. The dispatcher, who has been placed on paid administrative leave and whose name has not been made public, has refused so far to talk to investigators, he said. "She asked not to be interviewed," Turpin said. "We're waiting for her to be in a better state of mind for questioning. ... But we could force the issue."
Investigators are also looking into whether a device known as a shunt, attached to the tracks and designed to alert oncoming trains to a work crew's presence, was used at the scene of Tuesday's accident in Woburn that killed two workers and injured four, he said. Ten passengers on the Lowell-to-Boston Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority commuter train suffered minor injuries. "I'm here to tell you there's many things that could have been done on the track," to prevent the crash, Douglas Sheff, hired by the family of Edwin Olson, 55, told the Boston Herald. "We're going to get people under oath and see what really happened."
If you or someone you know was injured in an MBTA or railroad accident, please fill out the form below to contact Attorney Douglas Sheff:
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