A frantic 911 call: 'I have an emergency behind my house'

By Globe Staff

A woman who lives in the Newton neighborhood where two Green Line trolleys crashed Wednesday made a frantic call to Newton police, telling them two trains had "smashed together" and "people are very hurt."

"I have an emergency behind my house. A train hit somebody -- another train -- and there's a fire started," she said in a two-minute 911 tape released today by the Newton police.

"Hurry up, people are hurt," she said.

The dispatcher who answered the phone assured her that he was sending help and tried to get more information from her on the number of people injured.

"I'm going to start people over, ma'am. I want you to stay on the phone there," he said.

She then took a cordless phone and tried for a closer look, reporting a few seconds later, "Wow, it's bad."

The operator of one of the two trolleys that crashed on the D branch of the Green Line at about 6 p.m. Wednesday was killed. One passenger was flown to Boston Medical Center with serious injuries. Six others were taken by ambulance to nearby Newton-Wellesley Hospital with serious injuries not believed to be life-threatening. Five passengers were treated at the scene for cuts and bruises, officials have said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

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