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Passengers pull emergency brake on Orange Line train because rider's arm was stuck out the door
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By adamg on Tue, 01/29/2019 - 12:02am
Around 9:30 p.m., an Orange Line train pulled out of Ruggles on its way downtown. Only a rider, for whatever reasons, had her arm partially stuck outside one set of doors as the train began to move. When the driver didn't seem to respond to the intercom, a rider pulled the emergency brake.
Em Bear reports:
Glad to know the emergency button on my Orange Line train didn't work - luckily shouting down the train to pull the emergency brake saved someone's arm tonight.
Alanna Prince was also on the train. She reports:
It started moving forward as per usual, and then it came to like a loud and violent halt. It was unlike anything I'd experienced on a T ride, and I'm a born and bred Cambridge kid that's been riding the trains for years.
I heard a few kids scream and at first I thought they were messing with the train dude. But then it got like eerily quite and we were stopped for quite a while.
The woman was freed at Mass. Ave., where she declined medical attention from arriving EMTs.
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Comments
Heroic or an overreaction
Maybe pull the E-brake because the person is scared but there is no way the person would have lost an arm.
"Theres no way..."
Smug and ignorant arrogance on an internet board?
Who would have ever thought?!
Without seeing the situation-
Without seeing the situation--how far the passenger's arm was sticking out of the door, and how she was standing otherwise--there's no way of judging the risk of injury. And there are far worse reasons for delay than that someone mistakenly thought that if the train continued, another passenger would be seriously injured.
Doubt Em Bear "saved an arm"
If the person's arm is stuck in the door, couldn't they just bend it at the elbow so it is flush with the side of the train?
We weren't there. I guess the person could have had a really long arm sticking straight out which could not be bent because it was in a cast or something.
You are the Charles Bronson of our era.
Nobody is tougher, or smarter, than you. Cool under pressure, you dispatch with tense situations in the time it takes to break a pinkie with an Israeli special forces trained maneuver.
Aren't you the one who said transit users were losers?
So, in other words, you wouldn't have the slightest idea what you are talking about here.
If a door is partially closed AND someone is trapped in the door, there is a serious danger of that door opening at a bad time and the person falling out.
Yes
The fact that they are losers is probably the best counter argument to my original post. If anyone were to lose an arm in a cruel twist of fate it would probably be a regular T rider (somewhat relevant disclosure: I ride the T).
Even so, you think the person gets an arm stuck, the train leaves, the door's safety mechanism then fails where the door opens as the train is moving just as the person stuck is not pulling back but pushing against the door and falls out? Okay whatever.
How generous of you to
How generous of you to determine from your computer chair whether some stranger was in danger of losing a limb during a situation that you didn't witness. Extremely helpful.
Personally,
I'm enjoying the current 1:48 ratio on the first two comments.
I know
You would think many many many others would have upvoted my posts. I hate to impugn Adam in any way because he has my enduring respect but......maybe there is a glitch in the thumbs up feature?
For the record, it was not me that gave me the one thumbs up.
Suggestion
Try it yourself and see what happens.
Well they tried to use the
Well they tried to use the intercom first which was broken. And the door closed and train departed without detecting that the door actually wasn't fully closed. Seems like "body part hanging out of train" is a reasonable use of the Emergency Break at that point.
Agreed
Most emergencies are best handled by letting the train get to the next station (and maybe then pulling the emergency brake if you think it's absolutely necessary).
This is almost certainly an exception to that rule.
the emergency button on my
This is really concerning
And yet...
Completely unsurprising.
When in Doubt blame the Passengers
Lets see the intercom didn't work which means all those emergency call boxes probably don't work. The doors didn't open which begs the question how many doors on the trains perform like fly traps. The PR departments answer " The passengers overreacted". Isn't this the same line they used at Back Bay when passengers had to kick out train windows when smoke filled the train cars?