Articles Posted in Train Accidents

It is a widely known fact that crashes involving large trucks (a.k.a. 18-wheelers, big rigs, tractor-trailers) often result in serious injuries and deaths. It is also relatively common for long-haul truck drivers to spend significant hours behind the wheel during each work shift. In fact, in response to a rise in accidents blamed on driver fatigue, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration implemented hours-of-service rules in 2011. These rules govern the amount of hours that truck drivers can be behind the wheel in a single shift. Although efforts have reduced trucking accidents, approximately 4,000 fatal trucking accidents still occur annually. How can we reduce these  deadly crashes? One startup based in San Francisco thinks it has the answer. Contact a Boston Trucking Accident Lawyer Today.

Anthony Levandowski, an engineer who helped design Google’s driverless cars, left the technology giant to form a startup with two other Google alums and a robotics expert. His company, Otto, aims to power big-rigs with software, cameras, sensors, and lasers that will allow trucks to effectively navigate U.S. highways autonomously while their human drivers rest or complete other tasks. Levandowski believes that driverless big rigs will have an immensely positive effect on highway safety.

Driverless Cars are Already on the Roads

Although this might seem a scary idea to many, it is not a particularly new idea. Thanks to Google, driverless cars are already navigating city streets in Texas, California, Arizona, and Washington. Otto’s vision is to equip robot truckers with the ability to control highway travel. The more complicated task of weaving in and out of city streets would still be left to humans. “Our goal is to make trucks drive as humanly as possible, but with the reliability of machines,” said Levandowski.

Before you start checking every passing 18-wheeler for a robot driver, it might be a good idea to consider that autonomous big rigs may be decades away. Although driverless car technology has made great progress in a relatively short amount of time, the process is expected to move much slower with large trucks. According to Steven Shladover, the program manager for mobility at the University of California’s Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology, convincing government regulators to trust robot drivers to safely steer high-speed trucks on our highways is what’s going to take some time. “I don’t want to be on that highway when there is nobody there to take over a truck with 80,000 pounds of cargo and I don’t think I know anyone else who would want to be,” said Shladover. “The consequences of any kind of failure in any component would be too severe.” Continue reading

Following a chaotic scene at the State Street station Tuesday night, officials at Mass Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) say they will begin a thorough inspection of the Orange Line trains. According to transportation officials, at around 8:30 pm Tuesday night, deteriorating fasteners caused a body panel to fall off an Orange Line train and onto the tracks. The train subsequently ran over the panel, resulting in a disabled train, an overheated motor, and a smoky T station. In fact, as the train began to fill with smoke, some passengers kicked through windows to escape. Contact a Boston Injury Lawyer Today.

Loose Body Panel Hardware Was the Culprit

The good news coming out of this incident is that nobody was injured and MBTA will immediately begin conducting inspections of the Orange Line’s fleet of 120 cars, some of which have been in service since the 1970s. Although the Orange Line cars aren’t the oldest on the T, the older Red and Green Line cars have been rebuilt since they were put into service. The Orange Line vehicles have not. In a statement, the T’s general manager, Frank DePaola said, “Following last night’s incident involving two Orange Line trains, the MBTA is immediately incorporating inspection of body panel hardware as part of regular maintenance work on Orange Line cars.” Let’s hope they stay true to their word, as a future incident could have a more devastating outcome.

According to officials, two cars struck the panel, the car from which it fell and another about six minutes later. Since the train had not come to a proper stop at the station, the doors remained locked. Passengers, who were likely concerned with increasing levels of smoke, had to kick out windows and crawl through the openings to escape. Immediately after the incident, workers inspected every train and secured 13 panels. The panels are actually unique to trains on the Orange Line, so trains from other lines don’t need to be inspected for loose panels. The MBTA performs routine maintenance on the Orange Line trains at 12,000 mile intervals, however, checking for deterioration of fasteners on panels has not been standard procedure. From now on, it will be.

Orange and Red Lines in Head-to-Head Match for Least Reliable Fleet. Over the years, both the Orange and Red lines have become increasingly unreliable. Between February 8th and 14th, the Orange Line trains were running late about 20% of the time. According to MBTA officials, cars from both fleets are scheduled to be replaced, beginning in 2018. Four new cars will be delivered monthly until 2022.

Similar Incident Occurred Last Year. Tuesday’s incident was the second in a little over a year where panic arose due to a smoke-filled MBTA subway train. In January of last year, a failure in a train car’s propulsion system caused a Red Line car to fill with smoke at the Quincy Center station. In that incident, passengers also kicked out the windows of the car. Continue reading

An incident with a Red line commuter train in Quincy Thursday morning could have been tragic. The train traveled multiple stops without an operator, before it was forced to a stop by MBTA operations personnel. According to witnesses, the operator got off the train to check a problem in Braintree, around 6 a.m. However, for reasons as yet unknown, the train began to move, striking the operator. The train picked up speed and rolled through three stops, Quincy Adams, Quincy Center, and Wollaston, before coming to a complete stop just beyond North Quincy. Contact a Boston Injury Lawyer Today.

When MBTA operations personnel were notified of the incident, they immediately de-powered the third rail, forcing the train to a stop. Passengers were unaware of the danger they were in. In fact, when the train came to a complete stop, rail workers boarded and operated it to JFK/UMass, at which point they requested all remaining passengers to exit.

The cause of the incident is currently under investigation. However, investigators are looking into reports that someone may have tampered with a safety device in the train’s cab. As part of the investigation, both witnesses and the train operator are being questioned. Although foul play has not yet been confirmed, a statement from Gov. Charlie Baker, certainly makes it sound likely. “This train was tampered with, and it was tampered with by someone who knows what he was doing,” said Baker. He then went on to say, “This was an isolated incident, a tampered train, tampered by someone, and we’ll get to the bottom of it, and I’m sure we’ll have more to say about it shortly. Hopefully by the end of the day.”

Although the operator was injured, his injuries are not life-threatening. He is being treated at South Shore Hospital. Fortunately, no one else was injured. In a statement following the incident, Frank DePaola, MBTA’s General Manager, said, “Passenger safety is the highest priority for the MBTA, and this highly troubling incident is under investigation by Transit Police detectives.”

Altman & Altman, LLP – Boston’s Personal Injury Law Firm

As the above case is still under investigation, we don’t yet know if the cause was due to mechanical error, faulty parts, negligence, or criminal actions. Fortunately in this case, no serious injuries were reported. But it serves as a good reminder that commuter trains are heavy, fast-moving, dangerous machines, and we should always be aware of our surroundings when traveling on any kind of train or subway system. So many of us make our morning and evening commutes on auto-pilot, staring at our phone screens, or listening to music. These are great ways to pass the time, but just remember to pay attention to what is going on around you at all times. Continue reading

An Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway trolley collision this morning, injured a reported seven passengers according to WCVB.com and Boston.com.

The accident occurred around 6:40 Wednesday morning on the Mattapan line in Dorchester just outside of the Butler Street station, as the trolleys were en route toward Ashmont. An out-of-service trolley car, luckily carrying no passengers at the time, apparently hit another trolley, which was carrying passengers, an MBTA spokesperson told reporters.

The spokesman also stated that there were at least seven people who were injured in the collision; several reported experiencing some back pain, as well as minor bumps and bruises. Two of the injured individuals included trolley operators.
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A woman died after she was hit by a train at the Downtown Crossing Station last night. The Red Line was bound for Braintree. The victim was reportedly hit as the train approached the station. The fatal Boston train accident caused serious delays on both the Orange and Red lines.

According to one witness, the woman had been standing with a companion on the platform but leaning over the cautionary yellow line. Media reports are speculating that she may have fell onto the track or purposely jumped in front of the train.

Last night’s Boston train accident comes a little over a week after another person, a man, was struck by and then trapped under an Orange Line train at Haymarket Station. He died from his injuries. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said that victim was trespassing in the right of away when the incident happened.

Nearly 11 months since a Metro-North train derailed in New York City, killing four people and injuring dozens more passengers, federal investigators believe they have reached a conclusion as to what caused the horrific wreck.

According to WCVB reports, the National Transportation Safety Board said it is prepared to announce today the probable causes of the December 1, 2013 train derailment and address four other Metro-North accidents in both New York and Connecticut, which all occurred within 11 months in 2013 and 2014.

The NTSB said it has poured over hundreds of documented findings from the investigations. It is only now that the board has reached probable conclusions as to why the crash occurred. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut stated that he has seen the report, which, according to Blumenthal, “document[s] the cascading catastrophes over a single year illustrating the urgent need for dramatic upgrades and improvements in safety and reliability.”

Though no confirmation has yet been made, early reports in April suggested that the engineer of the derailed train, William Rockefeller, suffered from undiagnosed sleep apnea, which ultimately interrupted his sleep dozens of times each night. Likely, Rockefeller was overly drowsy at the time the accident occurred, according to these preliminary reports. Investigators questioned Rockefeller on whether he was clearheaded enough to realize he was hitting the curve at such a high rate of speed, to which Rockefeller replied, “apparently not.”

According to WCVB, other accidents within the 11-month span include a derailment and collision in Bridgeport, Connecticut, that injured more than 50 people on May 17, 2013; the death of a track foreman who was hit by a train in West Haven, Connecticut, on May 28, 2013; the derailment of a freight train on Metro-North tracks in the Bronx on July 18, 2013; and the death of a Metro-North electrician who was hit by a train in Manhattan on March 10, 2014.
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Three people were killed overnight when an Amtrak train and a sport utility vehicle collided with one another in Mansfield, Massachusetts. All three of the victims were SUV occupants. No one on the train was hurt.

Authorities say that the train was moving at about 125 miles per hour when the Massachusetts train-SUV accident happened. They are trying to figure out where the SUV came onto the tracks. The debris field is at least one mile long, which is making the vehicle’s entry point hard to identify.

Massachusetts Train Collisions