Local News

NEWTON (WBZ) ― Federal investigators are checking trackside signals and reports that a trolley driver may have been on a cell phone as they look for the cause of Wednesday's train collision in Newton that killed the driver.

Terrese Edmonds, 24, of Roxbury, was operating a two-car train that rammed the back of another two-car train about 6 p.m. Wednesday.  She died on the train. 

National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins said the signals were being examined because the T's Green Line trains are run manually and guided by so-called "wayside" signals. The train that was rammed Wednesday night had just begun to move after being stopped at a red light on an outbound track just outside the Woodland Station in suburban Newton.

Passengers, meanwhile, reported seeing Edmonds on the phone in the moments before the collision.

"I don't know if that's accurate," Higgins told reporters during the NTSB's first on-site briefing Thursday afternoon.  "Our investigators have not interviewed anybody."

"I heard something about that but we don't know yet," she said. "We're just beginning to look at this; we'll look at everything."

Higgins said rail investigator Wayne Workman and his team would assess equipment, human performance and safety systems. In particular, they planned to interview operators of the train that was struck, the surviving crewman in the trolley that rammed it and supervisors at the T's command center, which can track the speed and location of equipment.

Officials said they hoped to have all wreckage removed from the tracks sometime Friday. In the meantime, the T will continue bus service between Newton Highlands and Riverside.

The first interviews were slated for Friday. A full report is not expected for up to 18 months.

"We will find out what caused the accident by looking at all the various factors that I've mentioned," Higgins said barely four hours after flying up from Washington.

Edmonds was a relatively inexperienced trolley operator who was hired last August and began commanding a train in October. She was a part-time employee like most new hires.

"She waited for a long time, a couple of years, for the job and she finally got it. She was so happy," said her brother Leon.

Operators must be high school graduates, hold a driver's license, complete background checks and undergo a seven-week training program that includes classroom work and trolley driving.

The train that was rammed was later removed from the scene, but the one that caused the collision remained so it could be examined, according to Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Passengers were bused around the site on Thursday.

More than one-third of the roof was bent downward over the cab where Edmonds had been working. For roughly seven hours, firefighters struggled frantically to free her from the mangled wreckage before her body was extricated early Thursday morning.

"I was able to look at the damage to the car; it was very severe," Higgins said.

Investigators told WBZ the train Edmonds was operating was a Type 7, which is designed so the lead car takes the brunt of the impact, preventing mass casualties.

One passenger was flown to Boston Medical Center and remained hospitalized in serious condition Thursday. Higgins said six others were treated at local hospitals.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)