Boston Blottter: Tragedy Averted on the Tracks

The MBTA takes its share of slings and arrows, but at least one employee is a bona fide hero. At Davis Square on Monday night, MBTA officer Danny Vieira stopped a suicidal man from touching the third rail and pulled him out of the way of an oncoming train.

BadTransit describes Vieira's heroism best: "It’s our view that the majority of folks who work for this agency are sincere, hard working, and caring people. By putting his life on the line Vieira saved the MBTA from yet another disaster and granted the person he saved not just his life, but a perspective-widening experience that will hopefully be remembered always."

However, BadTransit also notes a problem with the MBTA's emergency response system, for Vieira radioed in an order to stop all trains from entering Davis Square. BadTransit asks why the driver of the oncoming car didn't get the message.

Elsewhere, the Scientologists are trying to stick their nose into the stabbing death of a student at Lincoln Sudbury High. The assailant has Asperger's Syndrome, and the Scientologists are trying to make the case that the medication the teenager took is somehow related to his stabbing another kid. Let's let the law deal with this one first, and then Tom Cruise & Co. can have a crack at it, okay?

Plus, the students themselves might be better at stopping violence than the Scientologists. A brave student informed Swampscott Middle School of a stash of knives in a student's locker, and the school promptly retrieved those knives.