NEWTON, Mass. — A Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) was indicted on charges he sent text messages while on the job.
The driver told investigators he was sending a text message to his girlfriend on May when he ran through two signals — one yellow and one red. The Green Line trolley, traveling about 25 mph, crashed into a second trolley; 49 people were injured in the collision, according to The Boston Globe.
“When people board a public conveyance, they place their lives and safety in the operator’s hands,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement, according to The Boston Globe. “They depend on the driver’s good judgment to protect them, and in the overwhelming majority of cases that judgment delivers them safely. On May 8, though, good judgment was not present in the driver’s seat.”
The driver, who has since been fired, faces a charge of gross negligence by a person in control of a train. He faces a maximum of three years in prison.
