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Green Line operator indicted in May trolley crash

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 8, 2009 02:57 PM

By Noah Bierman and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A Suffolk County grand jury today indicted an MBTA Green Line trolley driver for gross negligence when he rear-ended another trolley in a May crash that injured 62 passengers and caused $9 million in damage.

Aiden Quinn, 24, told investigators after the May 8 collision that he had been sending a text message to his girlfriend when he ran through yellow and red lights and hit another trolley in a tunnel near Government Center. Investigators determined that he traveled at 25 miles an hour for almost 600 feet through the tunnel without looking at the track while he typed on his cellphone. By the time he glanced up and pulled the emergency brake, Green Line car #3612 was just 8 feet from the rear of another trolley stopped on the tracks.

"When people board a public conveyance, they place their lives and safety in the operator’s hands,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. "They depend on the driver's good judgment to protect them, and in the overwhelming majority of cases that judgment delivers them safely. On May 8, though, good judgment was not present in the driver’s seat."

The grand jury voted today to charge Quinn with gross negligence by a person in control of a train, a crime punishable by up to three years in state prison or a fine of up to $5,000. He will be arraigned on July 20 in Suffolk Superior Court.

Quinn's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. The MBTA fired Quinn shortly after the crash, which sparked widespread debate about the dangers of texting while driving.

"This indictment reinforces the importance of our strict, new policy that prohibits bus and train operators from even possessing cell phones while on duty," said MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas in a statement. "I want to thank MBTA Transit Police and District Attorney Conley's Office for their careful consideration of this critical public safety matter."

In a statement announcing the indictment, the Suffolk District Attorney's office released new details about the severity of the injuries suffered in the crash. A 28-year-old Lynn woman broke her pelvis. A 19-year-old Salem woman fractured her vertebrae. And a 35-year-old Charlestown woman separated her right shoulder from her collarbone. In all, 49 people were taken by ambulance for medical treatment.