200 Hurt as Boston Commuter Train Hits Freight Cars

A train packed with commuters slammed into a freight train in the fog Wednesday morning, injuring 200 people as passengers were hurled through the cars seconds after the conductor yelled: “Brace yourselves.”

Although most suffered only cuts and bruises in the crash of the four-car commuter train from Framingham, about 50 people were taken away on stretchers and five were seriously hurt.

“I was reading my paper and then--bang. There was no warning. People really went flying. Pretty much everybody was banged up,” Myron Feld of Wellesley said.

Witnesses said the commuter train, which was carrying about 550 people, managed to slow down just before hitting the halted freight train.

Several passengers said the conductor yelled, “Brace yourselves,” to the occupants of the first car just before the crash.

Glass, shoes and other debris went flying as the passengers were pitched forward after the crash, witnesses said.

“A lot of people couldn’t move. They were stuck in the aisles,” Rob Ball of Wellesley said. “There was a lot of blood.”

Ambulance workers wrapped wounds and calmed passengers who were “screaming . . . yelling for doctors,” Tim Chattma of Framingham said.

Pineapples and computer screens spilled from the freight train and were strewn along the tracks.

Neither train derailed.

A speed recorder in the commuter train showed that it was traveling at 15 m.p.h.--the top speed allowed along the stretch of track--when it hit the freight train, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The crash occurred near the entrance to a Conrail freight yard, said Vincent Carbona, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, owner of the commuter train, which is operated under contract by the Boston & Maine Railroad.

Conrail spokesman Bob Libkind said that about a third of the freight train’s 69 cars had been moved into the yard and those hit were waiting to be switched to another line.

Safety board officials were investigating.