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Woman who jumped from bridge after escape from flaming Orange Line car: 'I'm safer in the water'

By adamg on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 2:56pm

WBZ talked to the woman who jumped from the Orange Line bridge over the Mystic River after she got out of the train when its first car began flaming and smoking after a metal panel came lose and created a short circuit with the third rail.

Neighborhoods: 
Medford
Somerville
Topics: 
The T
Free tagging: 
Orange Line
Wellington
Mystic River


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Comments

By BobGoblin on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 3:10pm.

She's not exactly wrong. At least it was nice and cool.

By Username Unknown on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 3:14pm.

So 200 people evacuate a train and are ok but one woman decides it would be safer to jump into the river. Ok

By mg on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 3:33pm.

Remember the first post about this? When the passengers evacuated, the third rail was still live. In the ongoing chaos, it was not an irrational decision if she'd jumped from high places before and was a strong swimmer.

By Kevin A on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 3:45pm.

What’s up with the MBTA, in the last few years the system has gone to the wayside, when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980’s the Trains were extremely reliable and safe, this day and age with technology and government funding they still can’t get they’re shit right.
I hope these passengers that were impacted by this ordeal sue the mbta .

By SwirlyGrrl on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 9:16pm.

He's been trying to kill it for decades.

This is his master work. His legacy.

By anon on Sat, 07/23/2022 - 11:08am.

Fight the fare increase, vote for George O'Brian!

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 5:05pm.

let's put you in a suddenly flaming decrepit failure tube over a river and see how you handle it, yeah?

By SamWack on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 7:47pm.

The 200 people who did not jump are ok, and the person who jumped is ok. What does this demonstrate?

You can say that it demonstrates that it wasn't necessary to jump, but, on the available evidence, it wasn't necessary to walk down the track, next to 200 other people, a live third rail, and a burning train, either.

By Username Unknown on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 8:49pm.

Yeah except it appears to be at least a three story leap to the water. Seems like she put herself at a greater risk jumping and fighting the current.

By lbb on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 9:05am.

If you're going to try and tell us that you would have made a perfect decision in those circumstances, I'd like to see a resume. It's possible that your resume includes training in exiting flaming trains on a bridge with a live third rail, but if not, maybe cut her some slack.

Assessment of risk in a situation isn't something you can just automatically do well even if you're a smart person. There's a reason for the phrase "Monday morning quarterback": it recognizes that it's one thing to analyze a situation in hindsight, insulated from any possible consequences, and determine the optimum course of action, and another to 1)come to the same conclusion while in an unexpected situation and 2)execute. There's a reason that first responders are drilled in scenarios, and it's not because they're dumb kids who need to learn by rote. It's because the best response in a crisis comes from a combination of intelligence, knowledge AND drilled response.

tl;dr: when confronted with an unfamiliar crisis, we average or even above-average bears who didn't specifically train for that situation are not likely to pick the absolute best response.

By SwirlyGrrl on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 12:08pm.

Except that I have no idea how deep that is and what obstacles are under the bridge.

I've paddled in that area and there are a lot of large pieces of concrete crap strewn around near the abutments.

By SamWack on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 1:23pm.

On the other hand, I'm sure you also know that "fight the current" is not an issue there. It's flat water, a few hundred yards above a dam. And the water, while not pristine, is not borderline toxic waste.

By Refugee on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 1:01pm.

risk jumping and fighting the current.

Would you rather fight the current, or resist the voltage?

By perruptor on Sat, 07/23/2022 - 8:01am.

Yes, that's what they say. I don't think I'd go that far, but ...

No emergency support. No shot for whatever bacteria is lurking in the Mystic River – cleaner now than it was in its industrial heyday, sure, but still no one’s ideal of a recreational spot. No one else’s business. Just on to the shore and on with her day. A common refrain among local commenters was that she was probably already late for work anyway, knowing the MBTA, and just needed to keep moving by any means possible. Maybe she’d had a large iced Dunkin’ and felt invincible.

By Bruce Springsteen on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 3:35pm.

We'd go down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh, down to the river we'd ride

By Friartuck on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 5:04pm.

In the piscine..

By anon on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 5:11pm.

In the water all you have to worry about is a few sea sharks. When you ride on the MBTA you have to worry you don't run into dozens of land sharks.

By adamg on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 6:36pm.

There are some good reasons not to go for a swim in the Mystic River, but sharks are not among them.

By SwirlyGrrl on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 12:13pm.

Climbing fish ladders into the fresh water of the river! Tricking boaters into using the locks!

By redherring_ on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 9:06pm.

I'll take the third rail for 400, alex. They should do a follow-up on this story in a few weeks. Hopefully she doesn't get infected with some sort of horrid bacteria/amoeba. :/

By adamg on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 9:48am.

The Mystic River Watershed Association reports that, all things considered, the water quality in the river yesterday was good.

Boating is probably safe! The chances that E. coli bacteria levels exceed state recreational standards are low, and there is no evidence of a cyanobacteria bloom.

By SwirlyGrrl on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 12:09pm.

Droughts usually mean less runoff = lower bacterial levels.

By Kaz on Sat, 07/23/2022 - 12:54pm.

The Mystic at 16 is quite a bit upstream from there.

The Malden at 16 is right next to where she jumped in.

Status: Advisory
High probability of elevated bacteria levels.

I hope she showered when she got home.

By Section77 on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 11:45pm.

We were told that if you fell in you had to go to the hospital for tetanus shots. Maybe that was a lie but you don't want to swim in one of the first industrial wastelands in the western hemisphere.

By SwirlyGrrl on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 12:01pm.

In the 80s we had to scrub any blisters with betadine. A housemate took a bet to swim across the river and was hospitalized within days.

But the EPA cracked down on sewage discharges in recent years and the river water isn't dangerous unless there has been a recent event and a nearby CSO.

The watershed has regular sampling data: https://mysticriver.org

This is a dry year so problems are unlikely in the main stem of the river anyway. Last year was, well, a shit show but still not like the 80s.

By Section77 on Thu, 07/21/2022 - 11:47pm.

I would have lost that bet.

By Matt on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 9:24am.

He wrote a song about what to do in such an emergency situation.

By adamg on Fri, 07/22/2022 - 9:42am.