MBTA investigates time lag in reaching scene of attack

The MBTA is probing why it took transit police 14 minutes to respond to an attack on a woman and her 5-year-old child inside an Orange Line station on Memorial Day weekend, an assault first reported by a T employee, the MBTA said yesterday.

The woman, Diane O. Camillo of Quincy, said she boarded an Orange Line train at the Jackson Square station around 5 p.m. with a female friend and her son, Ryan, riding in a stroller. Camillo said in an interview yesterday that the attack took place Memorial Day, but the MBTA said it occurred May 29.

Several teenage girls jostled her son's stroller, she said. She said she demanded an apology from the teenagers, who she said then punched and kicked her until the train arrived at Roxbury Crossing.

She said the assault continued on the platform in front of riders and a T employee. No one helped, she said.

The MBTA said a Roxbury Crossing collector contacted T operations at 4:51 p.m., and a train operator called in at 4:52 reporting a woman and a child had been assaulted.

Police arrived at 5:06 p.m as Camillo and her son were being put in an ambulance. She said she was struck in the face and body and that her son had a small gash inside his mouth. Both were treated at Children's Hospital and released.

MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas said yesterday that T employees are trained to call police, not step in themselves.

He also disputed Camillo's contention that no T employee helped. He said the train driver, when interviewed yesterday, told his supervisors he stepped in in an attempt to stop the attack.

JOHN ELLEMENT