Is the Red Line the Highway to Hell?

MBTA employees are getting their surly on, perhaps because a handful of them got busted for having affairs and running side businesses on company time. It's fine if they're in a crabby mood, but it's not fine if their negligence causes someone to get hurt.

Via Universal Hub, Jenny reports a disturbing incident on the Red Line that could have had a terrible ending were it not for some quick-thinking riders. She describes what happened after the doors closed on a kid who was following his family onto a train:

The doors shut on one of her children, catching him in the door between the train and the platform. AND THE TRAIN TOOK OFF ANYWAY.... A group of about five launched at the Emergency Button and Emergency Brake located at the end of each car. After about five pushes of the button it was clear that it was either a) broken or b) being ignored ... The train never stopped.

The passengers got the kid out, which probably would have happened no matter what the T employee did, but don't most T employees look back at the car to make sure everyone's in? And whoever was driving the train didn't bother to answer the emergency button until another incident happened in which the door flew open and someone almost fell out. Here's how a shining example of the T's public service responded to the second potential injury on the same train:

The MBTA employee was neither impressed nor concerned. He fiddled with the door and a set of keys for a whole sixty seconds and then told us just not to stand near it.

So, let's see, in the span of an hour at least four unacceptable incidents happened on that Red Line train: 1. A T employee didn't check the doors. 2. A T employee didn't bother to answer the emergency intercom (really makes you feel safe in terms of national security, doesn't it?) 3. The doors malfunctioned, and someone could have fallen out and 4. The T employee assigned to fix the problem obviously didn't know how to fix the problem, nor did he know who to call to fix the problem.

Thing is, it isn't that hard to mind your passengers. Passengers can be stupid, they can wait until the last minute, they can dawdle, whatever, but it's still the T's job to make sure that the doors work and that everyone is on the train.

Oh, and while we're at it, walking past a T employee yesterday and we could swear it looked like he was trying to cough up a hairball on the guy in front of him. Riding the T is full of so many surprises that they may as well make a Sims expansion pack out of it.

Image of AC/DC's Highway to Hell cover taken from Amazon. They look friendlier than your average T employee, don't you think?