Texting trolley driver indicted on charges of gross negligence

Aiden Quinn, the Green Line driver who plowed into another trolley while texting his girlfriend on May 8, was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury today, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office announced.

Quinn faces up to three years in prison for the May 8 incident, which sent 49 people to the hospital and cost him his job.

"When people board a public conveyance, they place their lives and safety in the operator’s hands," DA Dan Conley said. "They depend on the driver’s good judgment to protect them, and in the overwhelming majority of cases that judgment delivers them safely. On May 8, though, good judgment was not present in the driver's seat."

Prosecutors charged that the trolley traveled nearly 600 feet at 25 mph as Quinn typed a text message on a Motorola phone - ignoring yellow and red warning lights - and that he applied the brakes only eight feet from the rear of the train in front of him, which was stopped and had its brake lights on. The struck train was pushed 36 feet down the track; Quinn's car suffered more than $9 million in damage.

The DA's office says the victims include a Lynn woman who suffered a broken pelvis that could leave her impaired for life, a Salem woman who suffered a concussion and fractured veterbrae and a Charlestown woman whose right shoulder separated from her collarbone

Quinn is scheduled for arraignment on July 20.

Innocent, etc.