Dozens Hurt In Green Line Collision At Boylston Street MBTA Station
BOSTON (CBS) - Three dozen people were hurt when two Green Line trains collided at the Boylston Street station just before noon Thursday.
Photos: Green Line Accident
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told WBZ-TV one trolley bumped another and the injuries are minor.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports
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The operator of the trolley was a 46-year-old man who has been with the T since 2006. He has no accidents on his record and started his shift at 11 a.m.
As of 2 p.m. 36 people were reported injured, including both train operators. All were taken to hospitals in the area.
The station was closed for more than two hours. It re-opened around 2:30 p.m. but the MBTA said riders should expect residual delays.
Pesaturo told WBZ-TV's Jon Keller one trolley was making a stop on the outbound platform and it rear-ended a train that had been parked on the same track. Pesaturo described the crash as "low impact" and there was no derailment.
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong reports
But some witnesses told Keller the impact was more than a bump and they were tossed to the floor when it happened.
A man who was a passenger on one of the trains told WBZ it felt like a bomb had gone off and that "everybody just went violently into one direction."
The fire department said no one was trapped, but several people were taken out of the underground station on stretchers.
Chris Chanyasulkit got on the Green Line at Park Street and had barely had a chance to sit down when the accident happened.
"All of a sudden you just felt this bang," she explains. "Everybody lurched forward, I lurched forward, and there was this loud screaming,"
"It just happened within one stop, and I was thinking, 'I should've walked!'"
The Brookline resident spent a couple of hours at the emergency room, where she learned she has whiplash, along with other assorted bumps and bruises.
"I'm very thankful; it could have been a lot worse," she says. "But at the same time, it's kind of scary."
WBZ-TV's Jim Armstrong contributed to this report.
