Local News

Man ran beside Red Line train before being dragged to death, police report says

The Boston Globe obtained the MBTA Transit Police report from the incident.

Robinson Lalin, 39, died after being trapped in the door of a Red Line subway car at the Broadway Station. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff

By Susannah Sudborough

May 18, 2022

Last month, 39-year-old Robinson Lalin died after getting his arm stuck in the doorway of a Red Line train car that then took off from Broadway station and dragged him to his death.

Now, the circumstances of his death on April 10 have become clearer. thanks to an MBTA Transit Police report from the incidence obtained by The Boston Globe.

Lalin Family — Robinson Lalin, 39, was killed after he became stuck in the door of a Red Line train at the Broadway MBTA station on Sunday, April 10, 2022. – Handout

The Globe reported that just before his death, Lalin stepped off the train onto the platform before going back inside the car, according to the police report. When he left the second time, his arm got trapped between the closing doors.

The report said that Lalin was dragged 100 feet while still on the platform, and ran alongside the train before getting dragged to his death, the Globe reported. He was found about 75 feet into the tunnel.

The report said that the train stopped inside the tunnel for “an unspecified technical issue” after leaving Broadway station, the Globe reported.

But the train wasn’t stopped until it had traveled all the way to the end of the line and back to Downtown Crossing station after police had determined it was involved in Lalin’s death, the Globe reported.

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The incident was reported to Transit Police at 12:31 a.m., a few minutes after the train had left Broadway station, the Globe reported. The train was six cars long, with Lalin getting trapped in doors of the car behind the lead car.

In a statement to the Globe, an MBTA spokesman said that “immediately following the incident, the door systems throughout the Red Line fleet were tested, and MBTA personnel found all components performed as designed and did not identify any additional instances of the circuitry problem the incident car experienced on April 10.”

“During rigorous testing, the problem with the incident car was not discovered in any of the other Red Line cars of the same make and model,” the statement read. “MBTA personnel, who perform regularly scheduled preventative maintenance, are supplementing existing door inspection protocols with additional testing to prevent this issue from occurring again.”

The train’s safety features are supposed to prevent them from moving if the car doors are obstructed, the Globe reported.

After the incident, the Globe reported, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board checked the functionality of these systems for the car in question and found a “fault in a local door control system that enabled the train to move with the door obstructed.”