I had an interesting story about how I managed to make about 50 people hate me this morning as I managed to wedge my way through a gaggle of standing passengers, exit the train, and reenter it at a more advantageous spot, all to beat them off the train and to Dunkin Donuts, but that was before my commute home. Maybe I got what I deserved. But if I deserved what I got on the ride home, and got out of it as fortunately as I did, there must have been a LOT of people that angered the commuter gods today, because there was a LOT of blood.
I've been taking a lot of random late trains recently, as work has required, but Tuesday afternoons are the exception; due to class at Brandeis, I take the 4:45 train back to Canton.
As I may have mentioned (once or twice) in this space before, the MBCR is not known for its swiftness or timeliness. This should be surprising to no one. So I was contently discontent with our trip home; we made nice time out of Ruggles and people deboarded relatively quickly at Hyde Park (at Route 128, though why we have to stop there when another outbound train make stops there 5 minutes earlier is for another, long, ranting discussion.) There's a big bend probably a mile out of 128 station; we usually slow for this bend, because the train tends to tilt quite a bit, and I'm assuming its not good to go fast + tilt, especially if a train is coming from the other direction. Today, we moved through the curve quickly, and then started to slow.
Naturally, I saw all of this as I manned my post, protecting the door of the rearmost car from people that threatened to detrain before me.
We came to a dead stop (again, not surprising), and I waited to get going, knowing we weren't too far out of Canton Junction. What happened next was certainly the most surprising and startling moment of my life, as there was no advanced warning of any kind - suddenly I found, in one swift yet disjointed motion, my head thrown against the glass pane of the door, and my entire body lurching in the opposite direction - and not just away, backwards, but down.
The lights were out, my hat was thrown clear, and my IPod wasn't playing; in fact, my headphones weren't in at all.
And upon further inspection, I realized I hadn't been resting uncomfortably upon a middle aged Hispanic woman shortly before being thrown onto the ground either.
She seemed none to pleased with this outcome.
That was the first 4-9 seconds after my train was hit by a box car rolling in the wrong direction. Everything after is a bit hazy, but I remember the following; people with bloody noses, a lot of pain, and a lot of anger.
I got of the train and looked down the track - I assumed we had been hit by an oncoming train. It felt like we had been hit by an oncoming train. I couldn't see anything though - it was only as I walked down the track later that I saw the single box car.
The conductor yelled for everyone to get back on the train (I'm glad to see that even though he knew we wouldn't be on time, he still had a schedule to keep). I did, briefly (I had to retrieve my hat, of course). But as people started to gather themselves (and, as its been 5 hours since, I'm confident to say that I still haven't gathered myself fully), everyone started clamoring to get off the train.
I was definitely confused - I called my wife, she told me something, but I didn't really figure it out. I saw some people, presumably people that weren't seriously hurt, walking down the tracks to the train station. I started out to follow them - I didn't know what else to do - the conductors had started creating pools of people, those who needed medical attention and those who didn't - and all I could think of was 1) WHAT THE HELL!! and 2) I NEED TO GET TO CLASS!!
I could hear sirens, lots of them, and a helicopter overhead. Help was on the way. I was dazed, and continued to walk down the track, leaving the wreckage behind. I'd say I'm not particularly proud of this, but I quite honestly don't know what I could have done - I was working on instinct and that instinct was to get the eff away. I checked in with the other people that had self diagnosed and made their way to Canton Junction - asking if they were ok and if they had seen anything I hadn't (such as a logical reason for a box car on the track of a major train thoroughfare). I called my boss (why? not sure, still not sure.) I called my wife again. She said to stay put (I think this was reiterating the previous message), but I was already way past that.
I had and still have a few lingering questions - why didn't the engineer warn the commuters? I can only imagine that the panic that would have caused though. What would a real train crash be like? How fast was the box car moving?? It couldn't have been going too fast - but if it caused that much havoc at low speeds, I can't imagine what it would be like to be in a real high-speed collision. And of course, the most important question, HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? How did a train heading to Providence 10 minutes earlier pass through unscathed, and yet a box car appeared seemingly out of nowhere, likely a mile away from the nearest track split and on a track it shouldn't have been on.
A lot of people, I'm quite sure, are very angry and very upset. I feel quite fortunate to have been able to walk away, without serious injury. And I feel quite concerned about the fact that I have to get back on the train tomorrow morning.
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You realize you probably had some low-level concussion right; the whole not being able to figure out why you were calling people/what you were doing thing screams minor concussion and that jives with the physical description of the accident. You're the Ted Johnson of commuters.
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