Railroad Forums 

  • Back Bay Orange Line Evacuation 10/26/16

  • Discussion relating to commuter rail, light rail, and subway operations of the MBTA.
Discussion relating to commuter rail, light rail, and subway operations of the MBTA.

Moderators: sery2831, CRail

 #1408948  by Yellowspoon
 
CRail wrote: ... What's absurd is statements like "If I see smoke I'm smashing a window." If you do that you should be banned from the system as you're a detriment to public safety. ...
I, too, support the "If I see smoke, I'm smashing a window". I'm sorry you feel that way, but in an emergency, all rules are off. I had an uncle killed in a dormitory fire. Fire safety is ingrained into my family. We don't wait for someone else to declare an emergency. If a fire is not extinguished within ten seconds, I'm declaring an emergency. If people in the Station Night Club (or Coconut Grove, or MGM Grand) had started evacuation immediately, there would have been fewer deaths.
 #1409118  by DaWolf85
 
Yellowspoon wrote:
CRail wrote: ... What's absurd is statements like "If I see smoke I'm smashing a window." If you do that you should be banned from the system as you're a detriment to public safety. ...
I, too, support the "If I see smoke, I'm smashing a window". I'm sorry you feel that way, but in an emergency, all rules are off. I had an uncle killed in a dormitory fire. Fire safety is ingrained into my family. We don't wait for someone else to declare an emergency. If a fire is not extinguished within ten seconds, I'm declaring an emergency. If people in the Station Night Club (or Coconut Grove, or MGM Grand) had started evacuation immediately, there would have been fewer deaths.
There were also multiple trained first responders on the train who expressed the same view. When you see smoke on a train, you don't know where it's coming from and there really isn't time to find out. I was on the platform at State Street for the smoke incident earlier this year, and with that experience in hand it's impossible for me to think these people were even slightly in the wrong for what they did. It's easy to monday-morning-quarterback this stuff from the safety of your chair when you know all the facts and have time to think it over. It's not so easy to make the perfect decision in the moment.
 #1409216  by BandA
 
Yeah, might have been a smidge of unnecessary panic involved, but...

If the problem was in a tunnel not at the platform then banging out the windows would have been a bad idea.

Are there signs about the emergency eggress at the end of car, and emergency door release under the seat? There should be signs posted to cover these emergency situations.
 #1409239  by dieciduej
 
BandA wrote:If the problem was in a tunnel not at the platform then banging out the windows would have been a bad idea.

Are there signs about the emergency eggress at the end of car, and emergency door release under the seat? There should be signs posted to cover these emergency situations.
Those issues were discussed back on Page 1 & 2 of this post.

JoeD
 #1412417  by ns3010
 
I believe I began seeing those stickers just prior to the OL incident. I think it's just the timing and the gradual addition of the stickers that make them seem to follow the smoke incident.