Investigators: Trolley in Green Line crash was going nearly 30 mph too fast

(Photo Courtesy Derek Carter)

Investigators say this signal on the tracks heading toward Woodlands station indicated that the ill-fated trolley should stop for a minute and proceed at a maximum speed of 10 mph.

By Tania deLuzuriaga, Globe Staff

A Green Line trolley that crashed into another trolley from behind on Wednesday in Newton was going nearly 30 miles per hour faster than it should have been going, a federal transportation safety official said today.

A red signal light should have indicated to the train operator, Terrese Edmonds, that she should stop for a minute and then proceed at 10 miles per hour or less, said Kitty Higgins, a National Transportation Safety Board member, who is the spokesman for the team investigating the crash.

But Edmonds's train was racing down the tracks at 37 to 38 miles per hour when it rear-ended the other trolley, which was going 3 to 4 miles per hour, Higgins said.

"The train left Waban (Station) at a rate of speed higher than what would have been authorized," said Higgins. "What we don't know yet is why that happened."

Higgins said investigators were planning to see during a reenactment of the ride tomorrow whether Edmonds's view of the signal had somehow been blocked.

The crash just before 6 p.m. on an idyllic section of the D branch of the Green Line killed Edmonds and sent seven other people to the hospital.

Higgins said Friday that there was no evidence that Edmonds had applied the brakes before the crash. She also said investigators had eliminated brake failure and track flaws as reasons for the crash, but were still reviewing human performance, signal systems, and visibility along the track.

She said today that testing of the signals had indicated that they were working properly.

The question of human error is looming larger as other causes have been eliminated.

Green Line trains are manually operated, with operators regulating their speed by observing signals along the line. "It's their responsibility to follow the signals," Higgins said.

Higgins also said the MBTA would be soliciting passengers on the trains to provide NTSB investigators with their eyewitness accounts of what happened.

Higgins said investigators had made no progress yet in looking into reports that Edmonds was talking on a cell phone while operating the train.

"I don't even know, to be honest with you, if there is a cell phone," she said.

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