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SUV driver plows onto Red Line tracks at Savin Hill, cutting Ashmont service
By adamg on Tue, 07/02/2024 - 2:29pm
Update, 4:45 p.m. A test Red Line train just went through Savin Hill with no problems following repairs to the third rail and the fence.
A driver somehow managed to slam his SUV onto the outbound Red Line tracks from the parking lot at Savin Hill station early around 12:30 p.m., damaging part of the third rail and causing the shutdown of the line between JFK/UMass and Ashmont, as Just Some Dude shows us.
Transit Police report the driver was arrested on charges of driving without a license and negligent operations - and add the driver was uninjured.
At 1:55 p.m., the MBTA reported the vehicle had been removed from the track but that shuttle buses continued to run along the Ashmont branch as crews continued to inspect and repair the third-rail and other damage.
This sort of thing is more common on the Green Line, although without the third-rail issues. The Red Line is mostly underground or, in some stretches, on embankments or even elevated tracks, but not at Savin Hill.
SUV bent the third rail towards the regular rails (photo by Just Some Dude):
Update: After seeing this article, somebody sent in this photo of what sure seems to be the same Ford SUV - with the same license plate - after its driver smashed into a parked car on East Cottage Street in Dorchester about ten days ago. He adds: "I did overhear him say that the parked car moved into his way." See it larger:
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Comments
If you're a Red Line track
You've got to understand, cars are going to hit you.
But it's also notable that there were no injuries. Based on the photographs, the car was in contact with the third rail but otherwise isolated from the ground by the tires. If Mr Unlicensed Negligent (making an assumption about the gender here) had decided to exit the vehicle and hadn't made a clean jump, he would have been the ground.
Zap!
I hope the T can go after the insurance of whoever lent the car to the unlicensed operator.
That bent third rail...
...wonder if he bent it far enough to short out the 600V against the running rail. That would cause a substation to make a Very Loud Pop and take out the third rail power.
Either way
A loss for Darwin today. (Not that I'm rooting for anyone to get injured, but, just, how?)
From another angle
It appears that the third rail did make contact with the running rail, so, yes, pop, or bang or whatever likely happened.
While it's 100% the driver's
While it's 100% the driver's fault, the T really should have taken defensive measures and put up a crash barrier where a roadway is immediately next to subway tracks. This could have ended up much worse if a train was coming or the third rail touched the wrong thing.
Somehow.
Somehow.
Post updated
With a photo from a crash on East Cottage Street in Dorchester about ten days ago showing what sure looks like the same SUV (with the same license plate). Owner might have some explaining to do to the insurance company.
I'm all for coincidences
But yikes, twice? That's some sort of novel insurance scam in the works
Throw this absolute idiot
Throw this absolute idiot driver in prison and post his contact information on mbta.com so the hundreds of people who were delayed by him can get some satisfaction.