The operator of the Green Line trolley that derailed near Lechmere Station last October, sending seven riders to the hospital, says she doesn’t like how the MBTA threw her “under the bus” for causing the crash.
Transcript records from the National Transportation Safety Board reveal that trolley operator Daisha Fauntleroy told officials just days after the Oct. 1 incident that she believed the MBTA instilled a culture in which employees were fearful of speaking out.
MBTA Chief Operating Officer Ryan Coholan told reporters hours after the derailment in Cambridge that investigators were focusing on “human factors,” with preliminary findings ruling out problems with the track structure.
“What I didn’t like or what I don’t like about the whole situation,” Fauntleroy told officials during an Oct. 3 interview, “is how I’m an employee for the MBTA, and they just publicly put the blame on me first without checking their equipment or checking the rails or anything like that.
“I feel like this contributes to a community where operators or employees don’t want to say that this is wrong,” she added. “If it is my fault, it is my fault, but like they just publicly throw us under the bus is how I feel without checking.”
Federal investigators found that the trolley was traveling 36 mph in a 10-mph zone.
About 50 passengers and 2 crew members were on board as it left Lechmere and headed east along the Green Line. Less than a minute later, the train derailed — sending seven riders to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
According to a safety board report, Fauntleroy drove through a red stop signal, and the railroad switch that redirects trolleys to Union Square in Somerville was still realigning, causing the train to derail.
Fauntleroy said she was traveling at a “regular speed out of the station,” but then she instantly derailed. She said she didn’t recall any mechanical issues with the trolley, nor what speed she had been traveling.
Later in the interview, according to transcript records released this week, Fauntleroy argued that she felt there was not enough time to reduce the train to the appropriate speed, from 30 mph to 10 mph.
When asked whether there was a supervisor to whom she could have alerted her concerns about the speed change, Fauntleroy responded, “You can. I guess you could let a supervisor know, but I have never did it.”
An operator who was “trailing” Fauntleroy, opening and closing doors and assisting passengers in the back, told investigators he felt there was enough time to reduce to the 10 mph speed limit.
“Yes, a hundred percent … yes,” the operator, Mark Turner, said.
The MBTA has said that Fauntleroy is “no longer employed.”
“The safety of MBTA riders and employees is of paramount importance,” the agency said in a statement. “The MBTA has been working aggressively to install the Green Line Train Protection System while stepping up its focus on compliance with operating rules, including adherence to posted speed limits.”