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T officially blames driver for Green Line derailment
By adamg on Fri, 03/14/2014 - 2:32pm
WBZ reports the T also fired him - again - for the trolley faceplanting that injured ten on Monday.
Earlier:
Panic on the train after trolleys collided, 2009.
Sleep apnea, boring job might have led to fatal trolley crash, not Unisom, 2009.
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And they want school children to
Depend on MBTA service?
I was in an accident
in a BPS bus as a kid, so whats your point. You must have also forgot about the Bus drivers walking off the job leaving thousands of kids on street corners.
Some kids already do
Boston Latin already hands out CharlieCards to most of its students, and even contracts with the T to run "charter" buses in the morning and afternoon that run along regular routes, at least until they get near the Longwood area, where they all head to the school (I guess there are a few yellow buses for kids from parts of Charlestown with poor public-transit options). I think BLA does this too - I've seen 32 and 39 buses in the morning with a destination of Humboldt and Townsend instead of Forest Hills and Back Bay.
For the most part, it works, at least from south of the school (bonus fun fact: For kids who live in Hyde Park, Roslindale or West Roxbury, the CharlieCards also work on commuter rail).
Put it this way
How many people die in private cars for each person who dies in a light rail or trolley accident?
Those kids are far more at risk in private cars.
Not sure what the school bus versus trolley risk is, though.
Not sure on the trolley/train numbers
But cars will kill 30,000 Americans this year.
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/murder-machines/
"Over the past hundred years, as automobiles have been woven into the fabric of our daily lives, our legal system has undermined public safety, and we’ve been collectively trained to think of these deaths as unavoidable “accidents” or acts of God. Today, despite the efforts of major public-health agencies and grassroots safety campaigns, few are aware that car crashes are the number one cause of death for Americans under 35."
How can it be? He has an
How can it be? He has an impeccable driving record!
How fast WAS he going?
At least one passenger (or, alleged passenger?) says they were not going anywhere near fast. Although, the speed limit is only 6 or 8 MPH. However, operators frequently exceed this to some degree, though I would only assume not as fast as this guy went.
What WAS the speed limit? How fast was he going? What is the new speed limit (someone mentioned a new 3 MPH sign?)?
Does the MBTA plan on ever actually replacing the switch to allow for a speed limit a bit more generous than 6 MPH?
Speed limit was 6, it is 3
Speed limit was 6, it is 3 mph now as they have to replace a track part that was damaged in the derailment. I've been riding the line since it was served with PCC cars, and I think it has always been a 6 MPH switch, even after the rail and the switch were renewed in the mid-1980s.
The speed limit for all Green Line switches
, even for the "through" route (in this case, to the C Line) has always been 6 mph.
*ALL* switches are 6 MPH?!
Well then, I don't know a single operator who ISN'T speeding.
I have been on speeding trolleys that you could barely stand up.
I have been on a trolley once that was going so fast I thought It was going to derail. I even told the driver when I got off "If you are trying to derail this thing you are doing everything right". I bet it was the same driver. Next time I am calling the police when I feel unsafe.
I'd bet my rear end
that this is the same driver who I ran into occasionally on the B line, who'd take the turn through Packard's Corner so fast people got thrown to the floor, and who gunned it out of the Blandford Street Portal so fast that he almost hit me and my husband as we were in the crosswalk with the WALK light on- and then yelled at us for being in the crosswalk because "I'm not good at stopping the train." Except we were in the crosswalk of the Outbound tracks *before* he left the portal- he was traveling SO fast we couldn't clear the remaining few steps in time.
Black Boxes?
Do green line trollies have data recorders which would settle this question? I know these are fairly common in trains and light rail.
AFAIK, the Breda cars
(Type 8s) do have data recorders, but the Kinkisharo (sic?) cars (Type 7s) don't. In this case, I believe the train was a Type 7 leading a Type 8 (standard Green Line practice for two car trains per the MBTA's agreement with the ADA folks), so it should be easy to settle the question of speed.
How long before the union gets him rehired?
A few days? Weeks?
Argument
In order to help him win in arbitration I've put together a list of rock-solid excuses to use:
1. Mechanical malfunction which the T's hastily conducted investigation didn't detect or consider.
2. The T was wrong to release his name to the media before any investigation was over.
3. Medical emergency caused him to momentary black out or uncontrollably press the pedal.
4. He was being put under unreasonable stress by management before the accident occurred.
5. Sabotage by the T looking to get "revenge" for his winning in prior arbitration. [This one is gold.]
6. Distraction or interference by passenger.
7. Mistook the accelerator for the brake. (This works great for most vehicle accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists.)
8. Discrimination (Everyone is a member of some minority.)
Good Luck my lead-footed friend!
It's funny how people sit
It's funny how people sit here and talk shit about T drivers, but won't just in that drivers seat. It's easy to talk shit and criticize without actually knowing the truefacts. Dont worry homie will be back in a job, might not be driving a trolley but he will be back
I would just in that driver's
I would just in that driver's seat. But I can't, since the job is so desirable that they took *nobody* off the lottery list when I applied.