(The following story by Galen Moore appeared at BostonNow.com on April 7.)
BOSTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has asserted control over the investigation into a March 25 accident on the Stoughton Commuter Rail Line, after the freight company CSX alleged evidence tampering by the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company.
The afternoon rush hour accident between a runaway CSX rail car and a Stoughton-bound Commuter Rail train sent 95 Commuter Rail passengers and crew to the hospital. The freight car, delivered earlier in the day by CSX, had somehow rolled loose onto the Commuter Rail tracks, bypassing a derail device that should have stopped it.
The derail device is owned and operated by MBCR, the private contractor that runs the Commuter Rail for the T. The next morning, when CSX investigators arrived on the scene, MBCR employees had already disassembled the device. MBCR’s legal counsel was present, and “verbally and physically ushered CSX’s representatives away from the derail,” CSX workers said in affidavits.
CSX filed a complaint in Dedham Superior Court, and federal authorities took a stronger role.
“There has been some conflict among some of the parties,” FRA spokesman Warren Flatau said. “FRA is leading the accident investigation.”
CSX has since dropped its complaint of evidence tampering, but Flatau said the MBTA Police have been planning a criminal investigation, independent of the federal probe.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said T police are assisting federal authorities and are cooperating with CSX on securing and inspecting evidence. The Transit Police investigation is near its end, he said. “At this point, no criminal charges are anticipated.”