Two Green Line trains collide at Boylston station

By Ron Newman on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 9:48am

An eastbound Green Line trolley rear-ended another one between Arlington and Boylston stations around 8:50 this morning, injuring seven people.

Boston.com story
Railroad.net discussion
LiveJournal discussion, reporting that passengers on the colliding trains had to walk in the subway tunnel to get to Boylston station

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Comments

Was someone on their cell phone again?

By anon on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 11:12am.

Or perhaps drinking a medium iced with splenda?

Weird, I was on the train literally 2 mins before this, got into Park Street at 8:45 am. Kooky.

The NTSB said she was NOT on

By T Driver on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 2:20pm.

The NTSB said she was NOT on her phone so drop it already. A person who meant something to a lot of people died in the accident you are refering to. Perhaps it was an annoying passenger talking about crap the driver didn't want to hear that was the cause of this accident.

You're right, but she was still at fault

By Brett on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 5:30pm.

The question of human error is looming larger as investigators rule out other causes. Testing on the T's signal system concluded just after midnight yesterday morning, and indicated that they were working properly. Investigators said Friday that there is no evidence Edmonds applied the brakes before the crash. Brake failure and track flaws have also been ruled out in the crash. [...] Drug and alcohol tests on the three MBTA crew members who survived the crash came back negative.

In short, operator error. Nothing wrong with the train. Nothing wrong with the signals. The idiot drove into the back of another train at four times the speed limit.

By the way, the report said that she was not "on the phone." It never ruled out whether she was trying to text someone. link.

Medical Emergency?

By SwirlyGrrl on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 5:57pm.

I'm curious if she just blacked out, in which case she would not be at fault. I'm not sure we would ever hear if that was the case, as the most likely causes (statistically) would be diabetes or a seizure condition and that would be a privacy issue.

A diabetic coma would be detectable on autopsy, as would an aneurysm, while a seizure would not.

Is this, the MBTA, or an

By anon on Mon, 11/17/2008 - 1:54pm.

Is this, the MBTA, or an episode of House?

What the?

By Brett on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 11:51am.

From railroad.net:

No matter what the cause, this is only going to increase the calls for some kind of ATO on the Green Line. It's annoying that this is the second Boylston collision in the past year, and the the third total (unless I'm forgetting one).

Ok, we all know about the big kaboom, but...what's this about another Boylston collision?

Oh yeah, this one.

Remember, Safety Is Our... Number One Priority.

Also, if you've ever wondered why the subway car you're on comes to a very hard stop in the station and the doors open immediately, it was a lazy operator using the safety interlock in a way it was never intended (see the bottom-most post.) They hold the door-open button down and when the car is almost stopped, the safety interlock triggers (you can hear the loud "PSHTT!" as the brake pipe is vented) and the doors open.

On the train that hit the front one

By seanh on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 12:05pm.

I was on my way to work when we experienced the normal "heavy traffic" delays between Arlington and Boylston. We were stopped for about 5/10 mins when we started moving again, pretty quickly. Suddenly the brakes were jammed on really hard two or three times and then you could feel the impact of running into something ahead of us. People went flying everywhere. Once everyone regained their composure we sat for another 20 minutes with no announcements advising us what happened, etc. We did lurch again and everyone braced themselves to go flying and then we slowly made our way into Boylston with the only announcement being "this is the last stop, we apologize for the inconvenience." There were some transit police and medical personnel at Boylston, but again no one directing or assisting anyone unless they were approached. More of the MBTA's inadequate response to everything. Overall it was pretty minor, but really shakes you up in the AM when you're on the way to work.