Boston Commuter Train Crash Injures 18, Officials Say

A commuter train accident this morning along a busy section of Boston rail line caused head, neck, and back injuries to at least 18 riders, city transportation officials said.

The incident occurred during the morning rush hour at South Station, one of the city’s two main railway stations, where thousands of commuters pass through every day. A commuter train reportedly crashed into a platform bumper at the station located in Boston’s financial district. The train had come from the suburb of Worcester.

Passengers reportedly suffered neck and back injuries when they were knocked to the ground inside the rail cars as the train crashed into the bumper at the end of the tracks, according to a Reuters news report. Of those injured, 13 were taken to hospitals for treatment and five were treated for injuries at the scene. None of the injuries was considered life threatening, officials said.

Transportation officials said the train driver apparently misjudged the distance between the car and the buffer as the six-car train pulled into the station, causing the accident. The train was reportedly moving forward about two mph when the accident occurred.

Other Commuter Train Accidents

Today’s wreck follows an incident in May 2009, when two underground trolley cars collided near Boston, injuring about 50 riders. Also, in 2008, a train operator was killed when a commuter train rear-ended another train on the tracks in a Boston suburb.

In June, a deadly accident on the Washington, D.C. metro rail system killed nine riders and injured at least 70 others. The on-board computer that is designed to slow train cars when they are too close to other cars apparently failed in the worst accident in the city rail system’s 30-year history.

In September 2008, a Metrolink commuter train collided head-on with a freight train outside Los Angeles, killing 25 passengers and injuring 135. Investigators later determined that the engineer on the train had been texting on his cell phone around the time the train blew through a red light on the tracks, causing the accident.

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