MBTA: Quick reflexes on the Orange Line

While the MBTA often makes news for its big deficits, decaying equipment, or human error, an incident Friday showed how much commuters owe to the wits and reflexes of T employees. After a woman fell onto a subway track at North Station, other customers on the platform waved their arms at an approaching Orange Line train, and T inspector Jacqueline Osorio used her radio to warn subway operator Charice Lewis. Trains don’t stop easily. But fortunately Lewis reacted quickly and pulled her emergency brake in time to miss - by mere inches - the woman lying on the track. Lewis summarized the role of T employees modestly: “We do what we’re supposed to do.’’ But when things go wrong at the transit agency, criticism rains down from all sides. That’s all the more reason to award credit when quick thinking avoids what seemed like certain tragedy.