Mattapan High Speed Line Collision 12/29/17

R36 Combine Coach wrote:

Adams_Umass_Boston wrote:"MBTA says the Mattapan Line will run with four trolleys rather than the normal set of five until it repairs the two trolleys involved in the collision."

Will this mean a reduced schedule (from the 5-minute headway on peak)?

6.5 minutes instead of 5 minutes.

Per the FMCB meeting today: https://www.mbta.com/events/2018-01-08/ ... rd-meeting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (time ~57:00-59:00), the current plan is to get the other two trolleys that have been out of service back in service with parts off of the two crashed ones.

From NETransit:

Car 3262 is considered wrecked beyond repair while 3260 may be salvageable for future repair.

Update on the crash, as the operator of the trolley that rear-ended the stopped trolley has been fired and may face criminal charges:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/ ... story.html

There is a document out from the T that has some more infor on what going on for the short term, 2019, and somewhat long term.

Interesting photos too.

https://d3044s2alrsxog.cloudfront.net/s ... cb-dgm.pdf

blackcap wrote:Update on the crash, as the operator of the trolley that rear-ended the stopped trolley has been fired and may face criminal charges:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/ ... story.html

Boston has a long history of crashes like that. I can recall, in the '80s, there were LRVs in the Riverside yard with both ends crash-wrecked. There were enough such wrecks that the T would couple smashed halves of articulateds together. Of course, what they didn't do was change their personnel, training, personnel, policies, personnel or procedures. I'm from Boston ... you don't want to know what happens to your Federal tax payment went it reaches that city.

There have been at least two Green Line mishaps in the past ten years caused by operators on cell phones. Makes the hundreds of MBTA employees who can do their job safely look bad.

The driver of the trolley was also carrying a gun in addition to the cell phone. The driver admitted to possessing a loaded .40-caliber Smith and Wesson gun in his backpack at the time of the accident.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2018 ... -mattapan/

Did he have a license to carry? There are still some bad neighborhoods in Boston.

But wow, reaching into your bag and deleting a reddit post from the previous day?

Please keep this relevant to the collision. What the motorman was doing on his phone (specifically, the fact that he was using it is enough) and what was in his bag are personnel matters irrelevant to the incident.

The fact that he was using it is a fireable offense (I think), but there is a difference between glancing at the cell phone for a second and navigating around & using an app. It is strong evidence that he was a distracted driver.

The operator was not a driver, I've never seen a steering wheel on a streetcar. Given the facts of the incident, I'd be more concerned if distraction was ruled out as it would indicate either some sort of medical episode or malice, or some catastrophic equipment failure which would bring into question the safety of operating any of that fleet anymore.

(sigh of relief) Fortunately for the fleet, the collision was blamed on human error.

Now I recall a similar rear-ender crash on the Mattapan line some ten years ago where at least one news report was headlined, "Lack of signals blamed for trolley crash."

... bring into question the safety of operating any of that fleet anymore ...

And some 20 years ago a PCC (all electric) in Pittsburgh lost its brakes in a downhill tunnel approaching downtown and of course failed to make the right turn at the bottom of the hill. It ran off the track and into the street just beyond. Shortly thereafter the remaining PCCs there were pulled from service permanently except for a short almost level ground shuttle (from Drake Loop to a temporary loop at the junction with the main line (from South Hills Village).

CRail wrote:Given the facts of the incident, I'd be more concerned if distraction was ruled out as it would indicate either some sort of medical episode or malice, or some catastrophic equipment failure which would bring into question the safety of operating any of that fleet anymore.

Guess You didn't read the Globe article where Transit Police said he was on the phone or transit police saying he gave his bag to someone to bring to the office with the offending phone in it.

2 Quotes from the Globe: "The search showed phone activity on the Reddit website at 3:10 p.m., around the same time as the crash." and "The operator of the train that had been trying to push the disabled trolley heard a distraught Mattison say after the crash, “I didn’t see him, I didn’t know he was there” and “I’m screwed,” the affidavit said."

Sure sounds like distraction to me.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_ ... s_troubles" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

An MBTA trolley driver now facing criminal charges after crashing a Mattapan trolley into another train late last year has an eight-page driving record, with multiple license suspensions while he worked at the T — violations the agency said it wasn’t aware of at the time.

Leroy Mattison, 41, is due to be arraigned today in Dorchester District Court in connection with the Dec. 29 crash that injured 17 people, after transit police said he was using his cellphone to delete a Reddit.com post when he accidentally rammed another stopped trolley. He also had a loaded gun in his backpack on the train.

Mattison, who says he has a firearms license, defended himself in a phone interview yesterday, saying he’s “not a bad person” and hopes that everyone injured is “safe.”