T door closes, separates mother, child

The following story made us cringe.

"I am reporting a traumatic incident that occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at 10:30 a.m.," wrote Sharon of Melrose.

"My 7-year-old, 5-year-old, and 8-month-old daughters, 74-year-old mother, and I were preparing to board a Green Line trolley leaving Government Center heading toward North Station. Since we and many other families were traveling at this time to attend Disney on Ice, we were following other families boarding the trolley.

"My 7-year-old boarded, and I was immediately behind her bending down to lift my 8-month-old [who was in a stroller] onto the trolley. To my horror, the driver closed the door on me and my 8-month-old. [My 5-year-old daughter and my mother were immediately behind me].

"Being in a state of shock that a door was closing on me, and not wanting my 8-month-old to be hurt by the closing door, I backed up. The door then closed with my 7-year-old on the train. I panicked. I banged on the door and screamed that my daughter was on the train -- but to no avail. The train proceeded on.

"Thanks to an off-duty police officer from Maine who was on the trolley with my daughter, as well as the MBTA inspector at Government Center who alerted the driver to wait at Haymarket, I was reunited with my daughter in a relatively short amount of time.

"According to the MBTA's Customer Bill of Rights, 'safety is [its] top priority.' Safety was not on this employee's mind," Sharon wrote. "The drivers of buses and trolleys are the T's customer service representatives. If this person was not paying attention to the people boarding the trolley, or felt that he or she was there long enough and wanted to go, then this person should not have this job. Either way, he or she was negligent. Since this is not the first incident that I've seen of doors closing on a person with a child, I'm starting to wonder if safety really is the T's 'top priority.' "

The T responded quickly when told of this late Friday and promised to investigate. The inspector who helped reunite the family talked with Green Line managers about the incident, and they were tracking down the trolley's operator, who will be disciplined if it is determined that rules were violated.

T policy is that drivers are to close train doors only if they are clear of anyone. "This woman's report is very troubling," T spokesman Joe Pesaturo said. "We're thankful that the mother and daughter were safely reunited."

"The MBTA does not condone the operator's actions as you described in your e-mail, and I can offer no excuse for the operator's performance," Alfred A. Ricko, supervisor of the Green Line, wrote to Sharon in an e-mail sent Friday afternoon. "I am also a father and can understand the anxiety you surely experienced as a result of being separated from your child."

We called Sharon last week and asked about her daughter. "She was horrified at the time, but now she can't wait to tell all her friends," she said. But on the return trip home, given a choice between the Orange and Green lines, she said her daughter chose the Orange.

Molly of Arlington wants a traffic officer to control the chaos caused by impatient drivers and jaywalkers at the South Station exit ramp where Interstate 93 south meets the Surface Road.

"In the past, a Boston police officer stood guard to ensure orderly pedestrian and driver conduct, and the traffic rarely backed up," she wrote. "However, there hasn't been a police officer the last few times I've driven, and consequently pedestrians are jaywalking like crazy. Concurrently, traffic backs up [on] the exit ramp into the tunnel, leading to some near accidents.

[Starts & Stops concurs. There were several mega-backups last week inside the tunnel.]

"Is it possible for the Boston Police Department to post another traffic cop to help conduct foot and wheel traffic?"

Boston police did have an officer there for some time last year, in response to the I-90 tunnel ceiling collapse and the subsequent detours.

That was then. This is now, and Sharon Dottin, Boston Police Department spokeswoman, said the police detail was yanked after the I-90 detours were lifted.

"I don't believe at this time they plan on putting an officer back there," she said. "I'm sure if something arises later on, it might be something they check back in the future," she added.

We wrote in last week's column about the uncovered black-and-white station tiles at Arlington station early this year and quickly received an e-mail from poet and four-time Jeopardy champion Len Krisak:

"I realize it's going to be hard to believe, but I actually wrote the sonnet below back in early January -- honest! . . . Some poetic license taken, of course, but not an inordinate amount. God, I hope they preserve the tiles."

"Discovery in the Renovation of an Underground Boston Subway Stop"

White tiles, their serifs kerned like leveled spears,

Have formed in ranks of Roman capitals:

ARLINGTON. Laid in here a hundred years

Ago, they dignify these dirty walls

With stately gravitas, their borders coped

In black. So far, no vandal's hand has X'd

Them out, or left their chaste decorum groped.

Graffitists still have not defaced the text,

Tagging its letterforms. The modern crew

Remodeling this station of the "T"

Have yet to figure out what they should do.

Air hammers leave the word for all to see,

For now, mosaics worthy of a Rome,

A ruined Ravenna, or a catacomb.

Len added an after-story:

"A gentleman I recognized from similar daily schedules on the Green Line was sitting under the Arlington tiles, wondering at them. I took the plunge and made some comment about how elegant they were. We chatted for a moment, then I mentioned I had written a sonnet on the subject. Slowly, ever-so-slowly, he began to edge away. . . ."

Our forehead was red, veins bulging, our left foot cramping from working the clutch like the treadle on a sewing machine in 19th-century Lowell. We spent nearly two hours traveling 27 miles, came home, growled at the dog, and ate a cold turkey burger with Tater Tots.

What in the world caused that confounded jam on Wednesday night's ride home on I-93 north?

Kathy of Andover wants to know, too.

"For the past few nights after 7 . . .traffic on 93 north out of Boston until I-95 has been horrible," she wrote. "If I wanted to sit in traffic for 45 minutes, I'd leave work at 5 p.m.! [Last Wednesday night] I saw a police car on the on ramp to 95 south. Are they doing construction? And if so for how long?"

Jeff Larson, general manager at SmartRoute Systems Inc., said there were accidents on 93 north that night, but the biggest problem was a series of accidents from 4 to 5 p.m. on Route 128 between Lynnfield and Wilmington. Even after the accidents were cleared, the backup on I-93 and Route 128 was too much.

I-93 south will close at Exit 23 (Purchase Street) 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow to Thursday morning.

I-93 south around Sullivan Square will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday to Saturday morning. In addition, the onramps to I-93 south from Mystic Avenue also will close.

Storrow Drive onramp to I-93 south will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday to Saturday morning.

Essex Street onramp to I-93 south will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow to Thursday morning.

Haymarket onramp to I-93 south and the Callahan Tunnel will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow to Thursday morning.

The ramps from the Tobin Bridge and Rutherford Avenue/City Square to I-93 south and Storrow Drive will close 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday to Saturday morning.

Two to three lanes of I-93 north through downtown and Charlestown will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow to Saturday.

Essex Street onramp to I-93 north will close 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow to Saturday.

Sumner Tunnel onramp to I-93 north will close 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. tomorrow to Friday and 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday to Wednesday morning.

Haymarket onramp to I-93 north will close 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. tomorrow to Friday and 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday to Wednesday morning.

Access from South Boston to the Pike east and Logan International Airport will close 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow to Wednesday morning.

The onramp from Congress Street to I-93 in South Boston, and Exit 24 (I-93) off the Pike west will close 11:30 p.m. tomorrow to 5 a.m. Tuesday.

The HOV ramp from the Pike west to South Station will close 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Route 1A north near Logan Airport will close 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.

The Congress Street onramp to I-93 south and the Pike west will close 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday to Saturday morning.

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