Jun 1, 2008 1:22 pm US/Eastern
NTSB Hopes Test Will Shed Light On Trolley Crash
NEWTON (WBZ) ―
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A member of the National Transportation Safety Board and a team of federal investigators arrived Thursday morning.
WBZ
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Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board will be conducting a "sight distance" reconstruction test on Sunday, in hopes of getting a clearer understanding into what happened before the Green Line trolley crash in Newton that killed a train operator and injured a dozen passengers.
The test will help determine whether train operator Terrese Edmonds' view was obstructed before Wednesday's accident. Edmonds, 24, was killed in the crash.
Officials say they will conduct the test around 6 p.m. – the same time as Wednesday's accident. The NTSB will shut the Green Line down for about four or five hours as it conducts the test.
Tests done on Saturday indicate the MBTA trolley Edmonds was operating was going 30 mph faster that it should have been. Edmonds' trolley was traveling 37 to 38 mph when it struck the rear of the other train, which was going 3 to 4 mph. "The train left the Waban station at a speed higher than authorized," said Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board. "What we don't know is why that happened."
NTSB investigators are continuing to look into reports from passengers that Edmonds was using a cell phone in the moments before the crash, Higgins said. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority train operators are expressly prohibited from using cell phones on the job, she said.
Investigators also got results Saturday of drug and alcohol tests on the other three MBTA employees on the trains at the time of the crash. They were all negative. Toxicology tests are also being performed on Edmonds, but those results are not expected for some time, Higgins said.
Track and brake problems have previously been ruled out as the cause of the crash.
The line is expected to fully operational for the Monday morning commute.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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