Photo: WBZ NewsRadio Staff
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The family of a Dorchester man who was dragged to his death on the Red Line last year is now suing the MBTA. In a lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Robinson Lalin's son and nephew say the MBTA is to blame for the man's death.
The National Transportation Safety Board says Lalin was dragged to his death last April after his arm got caught in the doors of a Red Line train at Broadway Station. The lawsuit claims the operator of the train didn't follow the established MBTA protocol of checking whether everyone was safely on board.
The suit says train operators are supposed to lean out of the train and visually check that no one is still trying to board before leaving stations. It says the operator didn't check to make sure Lalin was safely off the train.
An early investigation from the NTSB said the MBTA's trains have a system which usually prevents the train from moving when something is stuck in the door, but that the system was faulty on this particular Red Line train.
The MBTA said the train in question had been inspected days before the incident, but the test didn't catch the short circuit on the train involved in Lalin's death.
The agency said it couldn't comment on the complaint, but called Lalin's death a "tragedy" and that it had "extended its deepest condolences" to the Lalin family.
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