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Mar 27, 2008 5:29 pm US/Eastern
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Engineer Recounts Commuter Train Collision
REHOBOTH, Mass. (WBZ) ―
The veteran engineer who saved hundreds of passengers in a commuter train collision Tuesday in Canton told WBZ he was just doing his job. Dramatic recordings released Thursday show he was incredibly brave.
A CSX freight car, loaded with lumber, rolled three miles away from a lumber yard Tuesday evening and slammed head-on into an MBTA commuter train near Canton Junction. 150 people were hurt.
Investigators say it could have been much worse, if not for the actions of the engineer, Ronald Gomes, 61, of Rehoboth.
"I was right up front," he told WBZ's Bill Shields Thursday.
Authorities released recordings of the communications between Gomes and the dispatcher moments before the collision.
"There's a boxcar coming right down on top of me," Gomes told the dispatcher.
He only had about 20 seconds to react, so he stopped the train to minimize the impact from the freight car. It saved several lives.
"Emergency, emergency, emergency!" Gomes hollered into his radio.
Seconds later, with 300 passengers on board behind him, the freight car slammed into his locomotive.
"After I did all my hollering on the radio to brace for impact," he told WBZ, "I said s*%# I gotta get out of here."
"When I stood up out of the seat that's when the impact was and that's what threw me around the cab."
"The car just crashed into us," Gomes shouted to the dispatcher on the recording, barely able to catch his breath. "Please send medical assistance"
"My teeth are all knocked out, I can't keep talking"
Gomes spent the night in the hospital. He's now recovering from fractured cheekbones and a shattered nose.
"I got a tooth jammed up in my palette," he told Shields.
Authorities say Gomes could have jumped to his own safety, but chose not to.
He told Shields he doesn't feel like a hero.
"I feel like a basket case," he said.
"The heroes are my friends and my family that were at the hospital as soon as I got there."
He also has 300 new friends from the train.
"This is a very rare incident. This has only happened a very, very few times… but not like this."
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