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.
Share this article
