Rail Crash Roundup

A horrible incident occurred on the commuter rail system yesterday afternoon when a train slammed into a work crew replacing railroad ties in Woburn. According to the Globe report, two workers died, and one was critically injured.

The crew and the train were on a collision course:

MBTA officials said investigators are trying to determine why a track switching device was improperly positioned. The switch should have directed the commuter train on a track parallel to the one the workers were on, but instead sent the train straight into them.

Bad Transit and Charlie on the MBTA are already on the case. Bad Transit points fingers squarely at the MBTA and their commuter-rail contractor, Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad (MBCR), because of cuts in the safety budget. Obviously, whatever or whoever was supposed to keep the work crew and the train apart failed.

The MBTA brass suggests a dispatcher made a mistake and put the work crew and the train on the same track. That's entirely possible, but surely there are protocols in place in case of human error. No one wants their employees to die on the job. They want the side effects - lawsuits and bad PR - even less. Whatever the cause, this accident could have been avoided.

Image of commuter rail train from mbcr.net.