Though there have been five fatalities in the past two months caused by Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority trains, students say they are for the most part unfazed by this figure.
Jonathan Lo, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University, said that though there have been a lot of incidents recently, he couldn’t think of a way to prevent future accidents from happening.
“Some of the causes you can’t really prevent,” Lo said.
On Oct. 12, the Commuter Rail in West Newton hit a man after he slipped and fell into the tracks.
A month later, on Nov. 15, a woman was hit by the Orange Line in Malden.
Only days after, on Nov. 18, a man was struck by a commuter rail in Lynn.
And last week on Nov. 29, a man was killed by the Red Line train after he fainted and fell in the tracks.
On Oct. 24, School of Management alumnus Joshua Stimson was killed by the Green Line between the Longwood and Fenway stops. The area where he was hit was fenced in on both sides.
This was not the first time BU lost students to train tracks. In 2005, freshman Molly Shattuck and sophomore Andrew Voluck died after they were hit by the commuter rail passing under the BU Bridge.
Joe Pesaturo, an MBTA spokesman, said that both the death of Stimson and the deaths of Shattuck and Voluck serve as a warning.
“Both incidents are tragic reminders of the inherent danger associated with walking along active train tracks,” Pesaturo said.
Pesaturo was not able to provide an official number of fatalities of the MBTA this year, or state whether or not the numbers have risen.
Brandon Kesselly, a CAS freshman, said that he tries to be careful when crossing MBTA lines.
“I’m usually just cautious when I’m crossing,” he said.
Ideally, Kesselly said, there would be an alternative way to cross MBTA tracks on the BU campus, although he brushed the idea off as “wishful thinking.”
Still, Kesselly said that students encounter more problems with car traffic than with subway cars.
Ilya Abugov, a CAS sophomore and a Brookline native said that he is not worried about the deaths on the MBTA. He said that because the MBTA is not reliable, he doesn’t take usually take it.
“Things break down,” said Abugov. “A lot of the time it’s easier to walk.”
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