Man jumps on Red Line tracks at Harvard Square T Station
Shortly after 8 PM, as I was crossing the overpass just north of the Yard I heard sirens, under me and on Mass Ave. As I crossed the Yard headed for the T, more sirens. Something big was happening. When I stepped out of the Johnston Gate, I saw a sea of flashing lights. Out of Town News was surrounded by emergency equipment. Cambridge Fire had a ladder truck, a remote controlled nozzle truck, special services truck [Tactical Rescue 1], and other units. There was at least one patrol car and one paddy wagon from the MBTA police and several commercial ambulances.
The station was still open with T personnel directing North bound passengers to shuttle buses at Johnston Gate. Since Inbound trains were still running I was allowed to go through the turnstile, but I went up the Outbound ramp to see what I could learn. A woman sheepishly told me someone had been hit. I could see that the train was stopped with only the head of one car in the station. Then I heard an MBTA officer calling in that a man had jumped on the tracks. There was a witness.
I thought to investigate further, but it made me feel like a ghoul. I remembered the “Subway” episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. I did not want to see it for real. What was my responsibility? A professional journalist would have marched up the platform and asked the emergency workers what was going on. My experience as a Unix system mother told me that right after a crash is just the time you don’t want to be answering questions. WIth lives at stake, focus is critical. What should a ‘citizen journalist’ do. I decided to take what I had, make a quick post, and e-mail the ‘pros’ at the Crimson. When I returned at 9:30PM only about 1/3 of the emergency vehicles were still there. The train had not moved. I was looking from the North end of the platform this time. I saw no victims.
UPDATE: The Crimson reports that the man hit by the train survived and is likely to recover. There is no mention of injuries to passengers due to the motorman slamming on the brakes. I would guess that there were minor injuries treated, but no hospitalizations. The report doesn’t capture the magnitude of the emergency response. It was impressive and I don’t believe excessive. Not knowing just what they are facing, I would rather our public employees show up with too much rather than too little strength. I’m proud of them.
I found no other reports of the event on Yahoo news.
