Trainwreck Hero
An MBTA train operator was killed and a number of passengers injured, including one woman who was trapped directly behind the driver when one Green Line trolley rear-ended another during rush hour Wednesday. Even as the wrecked trolley filled with smoke and other passengers ran, one man stayed with the trapped woman. Now she wants to thank him, but she knows him only as “Ben.” Boston Herald with a hospital bedside interview:
Min Perry was trapped for a terrifying 25 minutes inside a crushed Green Line trolley that had slammed into the train in front of her Wednesday night. Both of Perry’s legs were pinned when the impact from the horrific collision knocked the 37-year-old Wellesley resident into the aisle in a tangle of metal and wood.Perry was rushed to Boston Medical Center in critical condition, her right ankle broken and her left leg cut to the bone. Her condition later upgraded to serious, Perry yesterday sported stiches on her chin and a severe gash on her right.
A petite Asian-American woman with short dark brown hair, Perry was sitting directly behind the operator, Terrese Edmonds, who died from the impact.
From her hospital bed yesterday, Perry told her gripping tale to Herald reporter Hillary Chabot.
I couldn’t move my legs.
One minute I had been reading during my commute home, my legs were stretched out in front of me, my feet were up on the wall separating me and driver.
Then I heard a woman gasp.
It was like the wall in front of me started folding towards me. The impact threw me to the side and knocked off my glasses.
I couldn’t see. And I couldn’t move.
It was chaos. People were screaming and running out of the train as smoke started to filter in. The woman across the aisle from me was also trapped, but not as badly. She was able to wiggle out.
A man named Ben came up to me and stayed with me while we waited for emergency workers.
He is a hero. He stayed behind in a very dangerous situation. Everyone else was leaving, but he stayed with me the whole time.
At first I was screaming, but after a while the pain was so bad in my legs I thought I was going to pass out.
‘Don’t give up! Keep talking to me,’ Ben said. He gave me a blue shirt as smoke began to fill the train – and told me to breathe into it.
I want to thank him. He was so brave to stay with me. He had no way of knowing if he would be hurt from the fire.
My legs started to get numb. When the firefighters came, they tried several different ways to get me out.
I heard them ask where the train driver was. Another firefighter said (the driver) was still stuck in the train, close to the ground.
They tried to go through the side of the train, and then they tried to cut through the bottom, but eventually they propped up the material trapping my legs and slid me out.
My face was covered in blood. My sneakers were soaked in it too. I didn’t even know I had a cut on my chin or my forehead, but they stitched them up while I was asleep.
When they brought me in to the hospital, they thought I’d have at least seven broken bones in my leg. I only broke one.
My legs are still hurting like hell, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to leave the hospital. I’ve gotten calls from my coworkers and family, but I don’t want them to make a big deal about it.
I feel incredibly lucky. I’m so upset that someone lost their life.
I slept on and off last night, thankfully I didn’t have any dreams about the crash.
Getting on a train again? I can’t stand the thought of it. I’ll be thinking twice before I do it again.
More trainwreck coverage:
Probe to look at cell phone use: NTSB to look at signals, equipment, and reports that the driver was talking on a cell phone just before the crash.
Critics blast T for missed warnings: Boston leads in derailments.
Another black eye for MBTA: timeline of recent trainwrecks.
Topics: Boston
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:26 am Comments (1) on Friday, May 30, 2008
One Response to “Trainwreck Hero”
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May 30th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I guess we never know what we would do until something like this happens. Now Ben knows more about who he is. May we all find such bravery when it counts.