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System meant to lock doors on moving Red Line trains sealed the fate of a man dragged to his death at Broadway, feds say
By adamg on Tue, 06/27/2023 - 2:57pm
The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that a short circuit on one of the Red Line's older trains led to Robinson Lalin getting stuck in a door as the train pulled out of Broadway station on April 10, 2022, but that other systems that might have prevented his death also failed him - including one that actually worked as it was intended to.
In a report issued earlier this month, the NTSB repeated its earlier contention that the short circuit in the mechanism that was supposed to keep the train from moving if a door was not fully closed let the driver take the train out of the station even though the door was not closed because Lalin got trapped as he tried to get off the train, leading to his death by colliding with a wall at the end of the platform.
But, the NTSB cited other issues with the train and its driver:
- The driver was supposed to keep looking out her window at the pilot lights above doors until they all blinked out, but didn't.
- The camera/monitor system the T installed at stations after eliminating the job of train conductor, which the driver was also supposed to look at, has a blind spot exactly where the door that trapped Lalin was on the car.
- A system meant to lock doors in place once the train reaches 3 m.p.h., to prevent passengers from opening doors in mid-ride, actually worked, dooming Lalin because it locked the door and him in place.
Under normal operating conditions, the passenger door interlock circuit would have prevented train propulsion if a door obstruction was detected or the doors were open. However, the short circuit that bypassed the passenger door interlock circuit allowed the train to proceed even with the passenger’s upper body obstructing the accident railcar doors. The railcar passenger doors were designed to become secure in their positions at a train speed of 3 mph or higher. When train 1034 accelerated to leave the station, it quickly reached 3 mph, and the doors became secure in their positions, leaving the passenger unable to free himself.
The train consisted of 1500-series cars, dating to the 1970s, which make them some of the oldest subway trains still in use in North America. The NTSB says the MBTA now claims it will replace them all by next March.
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Comments
This story gets worse every article.
Every time new details are revealed, it gets worse. What a horrible, horrible story. RIP Robinson Lalin.
The T is not safe
The T is not secure
The T Is not clean
The T is not on time
And the worst news of all is the T is going off a fiscal cliff and needs about a Trillion dollars to fix the mess.
Agree. It’s all of the above
Broadway is the stop I use when on the redline and I think of that poor man every time I exit the train.
This goes back over half a century ago (God, I am old), but I recall during the early sixties the already old, olive green redline cars (originally from the 1940s?), with fans-no air conditioning, and windows that opened slightly at the top. In the summer if you were wearing a skirt, dress or shorts the ancient paint might chip from the wooden bench seats and stick to the backs of your legs. There was a conductor in the booth at the back of every car who would enter the train cars and make passengers feel at ease-some were personable and entertaining as well, and gave passengers a feeling of protection. Additionally there was a manned token booth and a couple of MBTA employees in the station to offer a semblance of security and perhaps the sense that the MBTA (MTA, then) was doing its job and actually cared.
Today’s Tufts Medical Center orange-line station is full of pigeons and their droppings-literally it’s everywhere- on the floor, escalators, platform, entrance, etc. I had notified the MBTA repeatedly about the unsafe and unsanitary conditions. No change. Eventually I stopped using that station due to the unsightly, filthy mess.
There are no employees to be found at stations anywhere, other than the “Ambassadors” who are basically a young presence of contracted employees - completely devoid of power.
All that money—billions— spent on a fare collection system that has been delayed (yet again) instead of using those dollars toward making the T a safe, dependable public transit service. In summary, I shall end with the often used phrase of a very old timer who is no longer here, “ Ah’m disgusted!”
Reminiscence
Yes, I remember all that too… we old-timers tend to think everything used to be better, and in this case I mostly agree… but let's not forget that one of the reasons they put an end to the manned token booths was that some of the employees in them were stealing money from the MTA.
The real worst news is that
The real worst news is that we can't do without a transit system, and a good one. This means cutting our losses is not an option: even though it's practically impossible to see how to get there, we have to fix the T somehow.
March smarch
I think it wholly unrealistic that the MBTA will have replaced all 01500 red line trains by March of 2024.
Fool me once, et cetera.
Fool me once, et cetera.
A minor clarification
The NTSB report says the MBTA will retire the 1500-series cars by March, 2024 -- not replace them. I think we'll just see continued reduced service levels which they will blame on parking those cars for safety.
Soon we'll just resort to
Soon we'll just resort to horses pulling wooden cars on the tracks because there are no more red line cars left.
Honestly at this point we
Honestly at this point we might as well tear out the tracks, put some restrooms and other amenities in the tunnels, and open the subway system to pedestrian traffic. Would beat traveling on foot on the surface 9 months out of 12 here.
Would make a great bike network
But the problem with repurposing the tunnels as bike or pedestrian paths, is that nothing compares to the passenger capacity of a train. We need trains, and we need them to be fast and frequent.
At this point buying retired
At this point buying retired disney ride vehicles and toodling them down the track like it's a tourist destination is a viable option to discuss. At least it would be honest about how seriously Beacon Hill takes the T and all the citizens of metro boston.
Does the MBTA
have any horses left?
"...eliminating the job of the train conductor..."
It seemed like a bad decision at the time. People said it was a bad decision at the time. It continues to be a bad decision.