BOSTON — A Boston jury has acquitted a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority light rail operator of negligence for a July 2021 collision that injured 27 people, the Boston Globe reports.
After just 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Owen Turner, 51, not guilty of a misdemeanor count of negligence for the July 30, 2021, incident in which the train operated by Turner rear-ended another Green Line train [see “MBTA light rail operator arraigned …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 7, 2021]. A report released last week by the National Transportation Safety Board said the train was going 33 mph at the time of the collision — 23 mph above the speed limit — and that the operator, who was not identified in the report, told authorities he may have fallen asleep prior to the collision [see “Operator in collision of MBTA light-rail trains …,” News Wire, Jan. 6, 2023].
Turner’s attorney, Matthew Peterson, told reporters after the decision that “there was no evidence” that Turner did anything wrong: “Sometimes an accident is just an accident.”
The Globe reports that evidentiary rules prevented the prosecutor, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Addady, from telling jurors that 27 people were injured or about the extent of their injuries. Jurors also did not learn that Turner had been suspended six times in seven years at the MBTA.
Mr Peterson was representing his client, to the best of his ability. I would have to wonder what the suspensions were for. Was it for oversleeping in the morning and being late to work. That would indicate mismanagement on the part of MBTA to fail to counsel the employee to take a sleep study.
That the operator has good representation, is an indication of a good union. A union that goes to bat for their members in the worst of situations.
That the operator may have had problems, no issue was presented on a failed post accident drug/alcohol test.
There are two separate issues here. This news item is about either criminal negligence or gross negligence, and it isn’t clear from the report. Gross negligence and contributory negligence interest those desiring to sue the MBTA for injuries. They are different from criminal negligence.
And then there is employee discipline, which is not within the scope of the jury. However, MBTA’s failure to permanently dismiss an employee who has repeatedly been disciplined could be construed as contributory negligence on the part of MBTA in a lawsuit. This is not over.
Are these “evidentiary rules” Mass. state law?
I remember a PA case [wife was on the jury] was allowed to hear similar information from the prosecution.
Suspended six times in the past seven years? Why is he still working there?
One more example of our liberal justice system being corrupt and broken.
How is a person not guilty of negligence for going 23 mph over the speed limit and rear ending a train?
Do readers of the Boston Globe get any further details as to the last sentence in the article above?
Charles, I read the Globe daily and they carried an article on this in today’s edition. I’ll keep following this story. Wonder if whatever union the Green Line operators belong to will now try to get Mr. Turner reinstated. Should that happen, the comment line to the article covering that development will sure be fiery. That lawyer Peterson deserves to be disbarred. And what the hell kind of trial rules forbid those pieces of evidence from being entered?!?! And we wonder why the MBTA is so utterly screwed up.