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Boston: Another Commuter Rail Crash (What’s Happening?)

What’s the hell is going on today?!?! There’s been another commuter rail crash - this time the T in Boston.

Two MBTA Green Line trains smashed into each other at the Woodland Station near the end of evening rush hour.

According to the Boston Globe, rescue vehicles are currently clustering at the scene, medical helicopters are landing on a nearby golf course, and injured people are being lifted onto stretchers.

WBZ-TV reports that two people were flown to hospitals, and rescuers were working to free a person trapped under a car.

Let’s all hold our collective breath and wait for the pass-the-buck press releases, official statements, and talking points from the MBTA that will emerge in the next few hours.

I’m sure this debacle had nothing to do with human error, but rather some completely unforeseeable technical problem.

UPDATE: May 28, 2007, 7:40 pm

The Boston Globe gives further details:

The trolley that was rear-ended was just emerging from a scheduled stop-light when it was hit from behind …

Because it was during rush hour, just before 6 p.m., passenger volume was heavy …

Jack Condon, 74, heard the crash:

“I was going for a walk and I heard a crash and I said ‘Uh-oh, this is a bad one’ and then I heard what I thought were a couple of explosions, or at least they sounded like they were explosions.”

He said he thought it might be a car accident on the nearby highway and then he saw “all the ambulances, and that’s when I knew it was a train.”