An outbound commuter rail train struck a vehicle that had stopped on the tracks in North Abington Center Monday afternoon.
Witnesses say the driver of the silver passenger vehicle stopped on the tracks as the safety gates started to come down shortly before 3:15 p.m.
“She could have backed out but just didn’t,” said Brian Marble, who witnessed the accident.
Abington Fire Chief Jack Glynn, who was first on the scene, said the woman was alert and speaking but suffered serious injuries. She was transported by ambulance to a Boston hospital, he said.
This stretch of rail has been the scene of multiple serious accidents since train service was restored in 1997. It is believed to be the 11th time a train has struck a vehicle or predestrian along the 200-yard stretch between North Avenue and Birch Street, and the 19th accident within Abington. Most recently an Abington High senior was struck and killed by a train while crossing the tracks at Birch Street in May 2022. And in April 2023, a 19-year old driver was killed at the same intersection. Grade crossings safety systems were working as designed at the time of the accidents.
Marble, who was standing outside the Cellar Tavern with Brian Baker, said the vehicle started to cross the tracks and then stopped as the crossing signals started to activate. At one point the driver started to pull forward a bit and the backward and hit one of the signal arms, they recalled.
The North Abington crossing is part of a long, straight stretch of tracks where train speeds can exceed 70 miles per hour. Marble and Baker said the train engineer could see the vehicle on the tracks, and started blasting his horn and hitting the brakes before the train reached the Wales Street crossing.
“He did as good as he could,” said Baker.
The slowing train struck the vehicle near the driver’s side door, dragging it about 50 yards down the tracks before the car came to a rest in a gully near the fence along Railroad Avenue. The front end and driver’s side of the car showed heavy damage from the crash.
“It was not fun,” Baked said about witnessing and hearing the crash.
Abington resident Daniel Eddy, who was on the train, said once the train stopped the conductors ran to the woman’s aid, and Chief Glynn was on the scene within moments. Passengers could see the woman get extricated and placed on a stretcher, he said, noting that he saw a broken crossing gate as his rail car pulled through the intersection.
The chronic rail corridor safety problems in Abington in part prompted the MBTA to take a number of cosmetic steps to improve grade crossing safety across the system. Intersections were painted with cross-hatching to better outline crossings. The MBTA worked with navigational apps to ensure grossings appeared on maps. And the agency installed white, plastic bollards alongside rails to remind confused drivers not to turn down onto the tracks.