Print
Jun 3, 2008 1:36 pm US/Eastern
MBTA Officials Issue Warning About Cell Phone Use
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
-
-
A member of the National Transportation Safety Board and a team of federal investigators arrived Thursday morning.
WBZ
Poll
Will you use the T less because of the crash?
You need the latest Flash player to view our Poll.
Click here to download.
Click here to
bypass this detection if you already
have the latest Flash Player.
MBTA officials are now warning operators about cell phone use on the clock. This warning comes one week after the Green Line trolley crash in Newton that killed a train operator and injured a dozen passengers.
Federal investigators have performed numerous tests over the past several days to try and determine the exact cause of the deadly crash.
Officials are now looking into the possibility that the trolley operator, Terrese Edmonds, 24, was using a cell phone around the time of the accident.
NTSB investigators have received reports from passengers that claim Edmonds was using a cell phone moments before the crash, said Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The MBTA and the NTSB are asking to speak with anyone who was on the trains involved in last week's crash. They are also interested in talking to anyone who was at Woodland or Waban Stations at the time of the accident. Officials are asking witnesses to call 617.222.5135
According to MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas, he fired an MBTA employee for violating the cell phone policy as recently as January.
MBTA train operators are expressly prohibited from using cell phones on the job, Higgins said.
A first offense results in a three day suspension and a second offense brings a 10-day suspension. A third offense is cause for dismissal.
Investigators have ruled out problems with the track, the signals and brakes as a cause for the accident and said nothing was blocking Edmonds' view.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
