Boston Runaway Train: Operator May Have Tied Cord to Throttle, Source Says

Baker said previously that the controls had been tampered with, but because of the ongoing investigation, he wouldn’t confirm reports that the operator jury-rigged the train’s controls.

The operator, who has not yet been identified, has been placed on paid administrative leave.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo says firefighters extricated the victim and he was taken to a local hospital with undisclosed injuries.

“This train was tampered with, and it was tampered with by somebody who knew what they were doing”, and that the controls of the train had been “manipulated”, but at this point it is uncertain whether this was just “negligence versus something else”, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told Boston Herald Radio, according to the Daily Mail. MBTA officials issued an alert at 8:05 p.m. saying that the Red Line train service had resumed with “severe residual delays”.

The MBTA was unable to communicate with the passengers during the incident and none reported injuries, Pollack said.

According to that source, the operator tied a cord around the throttle and did not secure the brake on the train when he exited.

Pollack called the driver’s actions “irresponsible”. FOX broke the story Friday morning.

Investigators on Thursday made “operator error” the focus of the probe into how the train ended up leaving Braintree station early that morning without an MBTA driver at its helm.

A consultant hired by the T said between 10 percent and 40 percent of construction costs could be saved through design changes.

“Technically it is impossible for what happened in Boston to occur here in Houston”, O’Brien Molina said, noting Houston’s vehicles are a different type and operate with a different type of signaling mechanism. An operator needs to provide constant pressure on a throttle to keep the train moving.

“If safety procedures are followed properly there is no safety problem with operating trains with a single operator”, Pollack said.

MBTA personnel then boarded the train and moved it up one stop, allowing passengers to disembark.

“Within a couple of minutes of when it left [Braintree], the power on the third rail was shut off at that point in time, but the train coasted because it had momentum at that point forward through several stations before it came to a stop”, he said.