Short circuit blamed for 2022 passenger death at Broadway station

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FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS have concluded that a short circuit on a Red Line train set off a chain of events in April 2022 that resulted in a passenger trying to exit the vehicle at Broadway Station getting caught in the door and drag him to his death as the subway car accelerated away from the station.

A National Transportation Safety Board report released Tuesday and dated April 12 found that the train operator failed to follow all procedures before pulling away from the station, but said the primary cause of the death of Robinson Lalins was a string of wire strands in the main subway. car that touched a mounting screw, completing a short circuit.

Normally the subway car doors would not close if they were obstructed and the train would not speed up. But investigators said the short in the train’s lead car bypassed a circuit governing the train door in the second car, allowing Lalin to become stuck in the door as the subway began to move. Once the subway reached 3 miles per hour, the doors locked in place, trapping him, according to the report.

As the train accelerated out of the station, the passenger ran alongside the train, his upper body wedged between the doors. The train did not stop and the passenger collided with a wall at the end of the platform and was killed, according to the report.

Video surveillance indicated that the female train driver pulled her head out of the lead tube car and visually inspected the station platform, but then pulled her head back before the nightlights above the doors slid out. turn off. Nightlights come on when the car doors are opened and go out when they close.

The National Transportation Safety Board said train operators are required to ensure all pilot lights are extinguished before re-entering the cabin and taking off. Investigators also identified a 19-foot blind spot in the [train operator] camera view that included the middle doors of the compound train’s second carriage. The NTSB determined that if the railroad operator had used the [train operator] monitor to check if the platform was clear before leaving the station, she was unlikely to have seen the injured passenger stuck in the doors, according to the report.

The driver took toxicology tests after the incident, which happened just after midnight on April 10. The driver had a handful of disciplinary actions listed on her file, including for an incident that involved a previous door failure in 2019, attendance issues in 2020 and non-arrest for a double red signal in 2021.

Lalin’s death at the Broadway station prompted the Federal Transit Administration three days later to notify the T that she was to assume a safety oversight role with the transit authority. On June 15, 2022, the FTA released a series of safety guidelines for the MBTA, which the agency continues to address.

The Lalins family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the MBTA in March.

According to the safety office report, MBTA’s fleet preventive maintenance inspection procedures did not previously include an inspection of the various door circuits. Now it does, and testing is needed to ensure the subway won’t move forward if the doors are in the open position. The MBTA also has procedures in place to ensure that protruding wires do not unintentionally complete a short circuit.

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Editor, Common Wealth

About Bruce Mohl

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions spanning business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as Globes State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globes Spotlight team, winning a 1992 Loeb Award for conflict of interest coverage in the state pension system. He was political editor of the Globes in 1994 and later covered consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazines website and wrote on a wide range of issues with a particular focus on politics, tax policy, energy and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

About Bruce Mohl

Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions spanning business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as Globes State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globes Spotlight team, winning a 1992 Loeb Award for conflict of interest coverage in the state pension system. He was political editor of the Globes in 1994 and later covered consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazines website and wrote on a wide range of issues with a particular focus on politics, tax policy, energy and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.

The 10-page report says the problem discovered with the Red Line train was not found on any other car in the fleet. He also said the T now regularly inspects the location of cameras used by subway drivers to inspect the platform to eliminate blind spots.

The Federal Transit Administration issued a safety advisory in October 2022 directing all railroad agencies to assess the adequacy of railcar passenger door inspection and function testing procedures, according to the report.

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