(The following story by Katie Zezima appeared on the Liz Robbins New York Times website on May 9, 2009.)
BOSTON — The head of the Boston transit authority said Saturday that he plans to ban the operators of train, trolleys and buses from carrying cell phones and personal electronic devices the day after 49 people were injured when a 24-year-old trolley operator crashed into the rear of another trolley while sending a text message to his girlfriend.
“They’re not to have it on their person,” said Daniel A. Grabauskas, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. “They’re not to bring it in the cab of the train or on board the bus. They’re to leave it at home, leave it in their car, leave it in their locker or leave it with someone else”
Mr. Grabauskas said operators would be dismissed immediately if found with such a device.
It is the most restrictive ban on cell phones by transit workers in the nation, including California, where last September 25 people were killed and 135 injured when the engineer of a Los Angeles commuter train collided with a freight train moments after sending a text message.,
The head of the local transit union, Stephen G. MacDougall, said that he supported such a move, clearing the way for the new policy to go into effect as early as next week.
“In our field of expertise, to deliver safe public transportation, it’s clear that embracing a policy that prohibits even possessing a phone while operating a vehicle is not just appropriate, it’s good public policy that’s in the best public interest,” said Mr. MacDougall, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union, Local 589.
Currently, employees are prohibited from talking or texting on their cell phones while working, but they are permitted to carry them.
“We have to be really firm and say ‘you can’t have them’ because for some people the risk and temptation of using them is too great,” said James A. Aloisi, Jr., the Massachusetts secretary of transportation.
Mr. Grabausksas said the operator of the Green Line trolley, which was headed outbound from the Government Center station in downtown Boston, admitted to the authorities that he was text-messaging his girlfriend at the time he rear-ended a trolley waiting to head into the Park Street station.
“He was looking down at his phone,” he said. “He noticed red lights, looked up, attempted to apply the brake, and it was too late. He struck a train that was stopped at a red signal.”
In the chaotic aftermath of Friday night’s collision, 49 of the 124 passengers from both trains were taken to local hospitals, where they treated for minor injuries, Mr. Grabauskas said. The trolley operator, who was on the job for 22 months, suffered the most serious injury, a broken wrist. Mr. Grabauskas said he would lose his job.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending 12 members to investigate the crash, which was similar to the incident in Los Angeles that prompted state and federal authorities to ban the use of cell phone by train operators.
In that crash, the operator of a commuter train was texting 22 seconds before he ran a red light signal and collided with a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth, Calif. An investigation by the safety board determined that the train operator, Robert Sanchez, had exchanged 43 text messages while on duty that day.
The California Public Utilities Commission banned the use of cell phones by all public transit operators, and that was followed two weeks later by a nationwide ban imposed by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Text-messaging while driving automobiles has been a contentious national issue for several years. Seven states and the District of Columbia currently prohibit sending text messages while operating a vehicle, and several others have bans pending.
In addition, 18 states and the District of Columbia prohibit school bus drivers from sending text messages when school children are present. Two other states prohibit all bus drivers from sending text messages while operating their vehicle, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
New Jersey has a law pending in the General Sssembly that would ban train and bus operators from texting or sending e-mails messages, and New York is debating whether to prohibit drivers from sending text messages. That effort stems in part from a 2007 crash in which five girls who had graduated high school days earlier were killed when their car struck a truck near Canandaigua. The authorities found that the 17-year-old driver had been sending messages in the moments leading to the crash.
In Boston, transit officials have been criticized over safety concerns, especially regarding the Green Line of the M.B.T.A. (known as the “T”), which is the oldest line in its service.
Last May, the operator of a Green Line train rear-ended another train in Newton, and the operator, Terrese Edmonds, 24, was killed. Initial reports focused on the possibility that Ms. Edmonds was using her cell phone, but federal transportation authorities determined that while she had been speeding, they could not confirm that she was using her cell phone at the time.
Officials are not releasing the name of the trolley operator in Friday’s accident, though Mr. Grabauskas said that he was from Attleboro, and that he had been disciplined in the past for absenteeism.