Officials Probe Heart Attack Death on Train

Authorities are investigating why a man who suffered a fatal heart attack on a commuter train had to wait about 20 minutes for medical attention while the train made its regular stops.

Assistant conductor Susan Bergeron defended the crew, saying that she performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on James Allen, 61, and that it would have been dangerous for the train to rush through stations without stopping.

Allen died Tuesday in the emergency room at Boston Medical Center, where he was taken when the train stopped in Boston, said Brian Pedro, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.

On Wednesday, Pedro said transit authority police were reviewing the emergency procedures of Amtrak, which provides crew for the commuter rail line, to see if there was negligence. Amtrak placed the train’s conductor on administrative leave. Allen, a coastal erosion specialist for the U.S. Geological Survey, was stricken as the Framingham-to-Boston train arrived at its Auburndale stop. Although the crew was told of the emergency, passengers said the train stopped at West Newton and Newtonville before arriving at Boston’s Back Bay station.