STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
THE 28-YEAR-OLD WOMAN who suffered injuries when she was struck by a falling utility box at the MBTA’s Harvard station this month is now suing the beleaguered transit authority.
Thomas Flaws, a lawyer at Boston-based Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah Trial Attorneys, plans to file the lawsuit later Wednesday, the firm said in a press release.
The Harvard University PhD student has a detached clavicle that “will require ongoing and long-term medical treatment” after a utility box — part of an MIT experiment that ended about a decade ago — fell from a column at the Red Line station on May 1, the law firm said Wednesday. Her injuries are intervening with “her rigorous academic schedule during a crucial time for students.”
More than a dozen utility boxes were later removed from three MBTA stations, after an investigation showed metal straps meant to secure the faulty equipment had corroded. The incident marked the latest safety scare at the Cambridge station, after a ceiling panel fell in March and nearly struck a passenger.
“We are troubled by the ongoing issues at Harvard station and throughout the overall MBTA transit operation. With reasonable attention and maintenance, this incident would have been prevented,” Flaws said in a statement. “We intend to find out exactly what is causing dangerous objects to repeatedly detach or fall from the ceiling at the Harvard station. We want to ensure no rider utilizing public transportation is ever injured in this manner again.”
MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng reached out to the woman last week to express concern for her well-being, MBTA officials said.
“The MBTA’s top priority is delivering safe and reliable service,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in a statement Wednesday. “The MBTA deeply regrets that this incident occurred, and know that we continue to work every day to ensure safety for all.”