ABINGTON, Mass. — In his five years as town manager, Scott Lambiase can recall several incidents where people were killed or injured on train tracks in Abington.
Four of them have been in the last five months.
“We want to know what happened and why it happened. Right away, we want to make sure everything was working properly. Were the signals working properly? Were the gates working properly? Was the conductor using his horn? What was his speed? What was going on there?” Lambiase said.
The latest fatal collision happened Wednesday around noon when a Kingston Line Commuter Rail train hit a white SUV.
The woman who was driving that car was found dead at the scene by first responders.
In a statement, Keolis said the crossing gates and warning system were functioning properly when the car drove through.
The preliminary investigation found no mechanical faults, the conductor was blowing the horn, and the train was travelling below the 70 mph speed limit.
“In some areas it can go up to 70 mph, I think in this particular instance it was going significantly slower only because it was approaching a station,” Lambiase said.
Two pedestrians, in two separate incidents, were hit and killed by the train in March. One of the victims was an off-duty Randolph police officer. In December, a minivan was struck by a train and dragged down the tracks.
Lambiase noted that any time there is an incident, they are in close communication with the MBTA.
“They’ve made some upgrades to the lighting, to how bright the actual red flashing lights are. They’ve put hash marks down on the ground. They’ve got little posts to help make sure people actually know that, yeah, we are approaching a railroad track, that there is something here. Be careful, be cautious,” Lambiase explained.
He said it’s an ongoing conversation with the T.
Lambiase added, “There’s probably more signage that we can do. We do a lot for education. We try to make sure people are aware. You know, sometimes the obvious things. We want to make sure people know that if the gates are down, the train is coming. Sometimes it might seem like a long time, but it is on its way, and some areas it’s going as much as 70 miles per hour.”
Another upgrade they will consider is quad gates, which are double-sided gates so people can’t drive around them.
Lambiase noted that the T will take the lead.
“We will do what we can do on our end, and they will do the improvements that are within their right of way or on the tracks or their recommendations. They’ll be responsible. We don’t budget for it. But for something like this, if we do come up with some solutions, some changes we want to make, we’ll find a way to budget for it,” Lambiase said.
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