An unmanned Boston train took off from its suburban station and headed toward Central Boston Thursday morning, traveling through four stations before authorities stopped it by shutting off the electrical current on the third rail, according to BBC News. Officials say the train was tampered with.
None of the 50 passengers were injured, but the operator was slightly hurt when the train brushed him as it left the first station. Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollock said that the operator got off the train in order to perform a procedure to make the train be able to travel while there was a signal problem, according to CBS News.
"This train was tampered with, and it was tampered with by somebody who knew what they were doing," and that the controls of the train had been "manipulated," but at this point it is uncertain whether this was just "negligence versus something else," Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told Boston Herald Radio, according to the Daily Mail. The suspected cause is operator error, and that is the focus of the investigation.
Fernanda Daly, one of the passengers, said that everything felt like a normal train ride until the lights went on and the train slowed down. "The people who were on the first car were trying to knock on the door of the conductor and that's when we discovered no one was there," she said, according to BBC News.
"The whole train started going slow, the lights went off and everything just stopped down between Quincy and JFK and we stayed there for about 30 minutes... It was all dark, everything was quiet. It was just us. We had no idea what was going on," she continued, according to the Daily Mail.
The train will be impounded while the situation is investigated.
"We failed our passengers today," said the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, according to the Daily Mail. "Passenger safety is the highest priority for the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) and this highly troubling incident is under investigation by Transit Police detectives."
The FBI office in Boston is also investigating the matter with transit police.
