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Lots of commuter-rail engineers aren't very good drivers

The Globe reports nearly 50 of the people who drive commuter-rail trains have had their motor-vehicle licenses suspended. Even the guy in charge of training them to operate trains safely has racked up 11 parking tickets and caused two accidents, the Globe reports.

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"But perhaps the harshest penalty was reserved for the Keolis executive who sounded the alarm about the number of engineers with dismal driving records.

Robert T. McCarthy, the vice president of safety, was dismissed after he warned the company about the potential risks in employing engineers with problematic personal driving histories, according to documents obtained by the Globe."

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McCarthy had his own legal issues which lead to his demise. It was not about being let go foe exposing some employee traffic violations.

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This is one of the few objections I have to anonymous commenting -- the ability to make damning statements about someone who's not a public figure without revealing your own identity. There's a reason we have the right to confront accusers in court. If you're going to do this, at least include some corroboration, like a linked news report. Otherwise, it's just vicious gossip.

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This is character assasination, but the globe printing driving records, which are not public, isn't? Most of these records go back 30 years. The globe didn't report that. And how did they obtain these records? Mccarthy tried to bribe and then threaten a minor while working with Keolis. He is out for revenge and stole HR files. He is trying to give the globe a sensationalist story. He's not about safety. But who cares about actual facts if it is going to sell papers? Selective truth is still false reporting. If you can't give the whole story then there's something wrong.

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Now with accusations of crime. You've entered the area of actionable libel. Hope you've got a good lawyer.

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Haha. Good one. I'll be waiting. Funny, you stick up for mccarthy so strongly. Wonder why? So easy for you to believe what you want. Most be nice living in a fairy tale world. You'll believe a slanted story written with stolen documents, ommitting facts that would change how you view the issue, naming names in order to harm the livelhoods of some good people, in order to write a sensastionalist story. You're exactly WHO that story was written for.

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Now you're making all sorts of wild-ass accusations about what I believe, based on nothing. You don't know anything about whether I believe the reported story, or how well I know McCarthy (I don't, at all.) I didn't say anything about any of that.

You still haven't given any supporting link for any of your claims. Why should anyone believe you?

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A good driving record is an indicator of a person's ability to play by the rules and their respect for the safety of others.

The fact that these abysmal driving records (suspended license? I don't know anyone whose had their license suspended, let alone more than once) are tolerated is a failure in corporate culture, not only of the operating company but our leaders at MassDOT who ultimately responsible for our safety.



Holding people entrusted with the lives of others to a high standard of safety is just common sense.

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To be fair to Keolis, finding a law abiding car driver in Boston is next to impossible.
https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2017/06/28/allstate-report-boston-dr...

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Imagine how bad you have to be to actually get pulled over and cited more than once....

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There is actually no comparison between motor vehicles and commuter rail trains when it comes to operating licenses.

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Kinopio is just mad because the T actually serves people who aren't fit enough to ride a bike and/or too poor to life in JP like he/she does AND these underserving people get even dedicated transit lanes to get into the inner part of the city.

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To be fair to Keolis, finding a law abiding car driver in Boston is next to impossible.

To be fair, you're full of shit as usual.
When you exaggerate to prove your point, you lose all credibility.

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to have to think about _where_ the train is going as well as _how fast_. No rails on those highways!

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Steering a train down those skinny tracks must be very difficult -- i imagine swerving more than a couple of inches would cause a derailment. I peeked into the cab once and didn't even see a steering wheel; it's a mystery how they do it.

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Declaring Boston as having the worst drivers could be true but not really substantiated by the criteria used by Allstate Insurance's research criteria. Given NYC a ranking of roughly 50% lower than Boston immediately raises questions about the validity of the study's conclusions.

The study is based on the claims they received (which is 10% of all US claims nationally) - not sure if this is statistically meaningful or significant. Also, what constitutes a city (defined) certainly seems important.

There is only cursory attention paid to weather/climate differentiation between cities and their respective population density. There is no attention, it would seem, given to be defining the inherent differences between urban and metro areas measured in the research, age of drivers, specificity as to what constitutes a claim, the number of hours and distances people spent in driving, etc., etc. , .

I would look to the NTSB and similar organizations for what would likely to be a more accurate and realistic analysis and conclusion of which drivers are "best" versus "worst" (highly subjective terms). Also, an article written by an person involved in an internship for Boston Magazine would not seem to carry the weight as perhaps someone who has researched this subject, reported on it n the past, and understands that declaring one set of drivers meter than the others requires careful and extensive analysis. Just saying...

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When that hail storm hit a few years ago and people filed claims on the damage, would that count in these stats?

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I hardly think 11 parking tickets is a benchmark for bad driving. Bad parking, poor sign comprehension, selfishness, maybe but not bad driving.

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I used to live in a place where (I'm dating myself by the quaintly small numbers) a parking ticket was $10, feeding the meter for a whole day (which was allowed) was $8, and parking 4 blocks away in a lot was $12. Many people I knew just didn't bother with the meter if it was raining or if they were busy, and just paid the tickets. Nobody felt selfish: they were not blocking anybody's access to anything; the city was making more $ from them than it would have, had they just fed the meter, etc.

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I don't know how relevant the parking ticket thing is; you can get quite a few of them just by losing track of time once in awhile.

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I've lived in the city for 25 years and can count on one hand the number of parking tickets I've gotten.

Not sure whether it indicates prowess as an engineer, but it takes effort for the average person to rack up 11 parking tickets.

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There are plenty of places where accumulating the tickets is just the way rich people park. The Back Bay used to be full of people who just drop the stack on their secretary's desk once a week. I'm OK with that so long as the person isn't blocking a hydrant or a handicapped space, or long-term hogging spaces that are designated 2-hour turnover so as to give the merchants a chance, or preventing street sweeping, or otherwise being antisocial.

Finally the city brought the parking ticket fees more in line with reality and it kind of died out.

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Do you honestly think that he or anyone driving a commuter rail train lives in Back Bay? Get real.

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of how good or bad a driver may be. Especially in cities like Boston, where being five seconds over the meter time will usually get you one.

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Adam,

Not parking tickets. Speeding tickets.

Manager of engineer training Shawn Monahan, who teaches aspiring engineers what they need to know before they can operate a train, has received 11 speeding tickets and caused two accidents.

There's really no public record of parking tickets (since they are issued to a vehicle, not a person), but there are of speeding tickets. And while if you regularly get parking tickets you're kind of dense, it doesn't necessarily make you a bad driver.

If you have gotten 11 speeding tickets—especially since to get a speeding ticket around here you basically have to break the sound barrier—that's a bit more disconcerting.

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Is it even possible to get ONE speeding ticket in MA given how poorly enforced speed limits are?

I can't even think of the last time I saw a speed trap.

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Especially South Brookline--saw three speed traps last summer within 2 miles. Often see them on Allandale Rd., Lee Street, and surrounding areas.

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absolutely.

You can prove this yourself by cruising down 202 next time you go to Amherst at 65+ MPH and see how that goes.

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Including people passing me to go that speed.

Nothing. Rarely even a cop car.

What part of 202 are you talking about? I come from route 2.

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How bad of a driver do you have to be to have your license suspended multiple times? I've had a license since I was 16 (I'm now 36) and I've never even gotten a speeding ticket. These guys have no business operating trains. Surely they can find people with clean(er) driving records.

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