Two dead in Woburn train wreck

A train’s horn cut through the brisk afternoon air, and by the time the television crews and medical helicopters showed up, Woburn residents were in shock.

Two railroad maintenance workers were dead on the tracks between Salem Street and Montvale Avenue, and another one clung to life in a Boston hospital after being struck by an MBTA commuter train around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this,” said Katelyn Aquaro, a student at nearby Goodyear School, walking near the scene of the crash after school. “It’s sad for the people in there. I’m shocked.”

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joe Pesaturo said Tuesday that a Wilmington-based crew of six workers was replacing railroad ties when the southbound train hit their work truck. His comments seemed to confirm a rumor in the neighborhood that the workers were on a track that should not have been active.

“I can say at least 10 trains had come through the work area earlier in the day without incident,” said Pesaturo. “The train should have been switched to the other track to avoid the work crew.”

Christopher Talalas of Pine Street, who lives near the crash scene, said it wasn’t the first train accident along the East Woburn right-of-way, but was definitely the worst he’s seen.

“Five or six years ago, an older kid jumped in front of the train,” Talalas recalled. “That’s the last thing that happened. There are deer, here and there, but never anything like this.

“I heard the horn,” he added. “When we hear the horn, we know someone’s on the track. Then I heard the [hospital] helicopters. When I went down, I could see half a body. It’s disturbing.”

Witnesses on the train said the workers’ truck was slammed hard and flipped over in the impact. The smashed vehicle was still resting by the side of the train an hour after the accident. The cow catcher on the front of the commuter train was badly mangled, officials and witnesses said.

“I looked up and I saw the thing turn end over end — it was something big,” said John Robbins of Westford, a passenger on the commuter train headed from Lowell to Boston.

Robbins said that just before the crash, a conductor walked along the train and said “everyone hold on.”

The force of the collision tossed him off around and broke his cell phone, he said.

Another passenger on the train, Katie Landry, 20, of New Hampshire, was distraught after the crash.

“I didn’t want anybody to be seriously hurt,” she said while sitting on a stone wall along a residential street near the scene of the crash.

One of the workers, John Hickey of Lowell, was taken by helicopter from Leland Field, off Washington Street, to Boston Medical Center. The other three workers sustained minor injuries: two were transported to Winchester Hospital and one, Edwin Olson of Lowell, Lahey Clinic in Burlington. The two workers killed, one of whom was identified as Christopher Macaulay of Brentwood, N.H., were pronounced dead at the scene. Three of the workers’ names were still being withheld Tuesday night, pending notification of their families.

There were 42 passengers on the train at the time of the accident. None had visible injuries, but 10 requested medical attention and were transported to Lahey and Winchester.

The collision was near the end of Lawson Street, a dead-end residential street off Orange Street. Lawson Street resident Robert Brady said trains often speed by that stretch of track.

“If they would cut the speed in half, it might not have happened,” Brady said. “They do go by too fast.”

The area of track in question has seen at least a year of repair work. It was closed after the crash, and commuter rail passengers were transported by bus between Anderson and Winchester Center stations.

In a mid-afternoon statement, Massachsuetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., which provides personnel to the MBTA to operate the trains and handle maintenance, expressed its sympathy.

“The MBCR is stunned and deeply saddened by today's horrific tragedy,” the firm said in a statement.

Holly Schmidt of the Woburn Advocate, and Lauren Crimaldi and Jessica Fargen of the Boston Herald, contributed to this report.