CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - As federal investigators got to work Wednesday, outside experts and elected state officials shared their reaction to the Green Line train derailment that sent seven people to the hospital Tuesday afternoon.
No one was seriously hurt in the incident near Lechmere station. Speaking with 7NEWS, though, transportation safety expert Keith Millhouse said it could have been worse.
“You’ll notice that the lead car was pushed onto an adjacent track. So, if that track was an active track, and if a train had been coming at the time in either direction, you could have had a collision between two trains, which would have had a more devastating impact,” Millhouse said.
The derailment is the latest problem on the Green Line Extension, which is the newest portion of the MBTA system. It extends the northern end of the Green Line from Lechmere to Union Square in Somerville and College Avenue in Medford.
The extension already faced a two-week shutdown last year when the new tracks turned out to be too narrow.
State Rep. Mike Connolly’s district includes the Green Line Extension and parts of the Red Line.
“We’ve made great progress reducing these slow zones,” he said, referencing sections of track where trains are required to operate at reduced speeds. “So, then for this new to happen yesterday is really disappointing.”
Derailments on the entire MBTA system are down from more than 20 per year, five years ago, to just two to three per year. However, the fact that they keep happening may be what has National Transportation Safety Board investigators taking a closer look, Millhouse said.
“The quality control that will have to be instituted for inspection to make sure we don’t have a pervasive problem on that line could take some time, unfortunately,” he said.
Although MBTA investigators were quick to suggest human error may be behind the latest issue, experts say that does not rule out underlying issues that might need to be addressed.
“It begs the question why you continue to see human error occurring on the T system. They shouldn’t be happening. These operators need to be monitored. They need to be properly trained and there should be control systems in place to prevent these type of human errors from occurring,” Millhouse said.
NTSB officials said it could be a month before the preliminary investigation reveals the cause of the derailment and a couple of years before they come to a final answer.
It was unclear how far along investigators were in their probe as of Wednesday evening.
With the derailed train still parked on the tracks near Lechmere, the incident has caused an indefinite service shutdown along the Green Line Extension. T officials said it is unclear how long shuttle buses will replace train service on the extension.
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