Allston man sues MBTA over injuries he says he suffered in two-train Green Line crash on Comm. Ave.

An Allston man who says he was on one of the two Green Line trains that crashed outside BU's Agganis Arena on June 30, 2021 today sued the MBTA for the broken ribs, collapsed lung and other injuries he says he suffered.

In a suit filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Huan Qiang Lei says he was "thrown violently about the interior of the train car," in a crash that the T negligently allowed to happen by "failing to keep a safe distance between train cars and by operating train cars at an unsafe speed." His complaint does not make clear if he was in the train that was hit or the train whose driver federal investigators say caused the crash.

Federal investigators have blamed the driver of the second train for suddenly accelerating his train up to 30 m.p.h. when the train in front of him was going around 10 m.p.h.

At the time the MBTA was only preparing to install a system designed to keep one trolley from rear-ending another through the use of trackside monitors and onboard systems to trigger brakes should one trolley get too close to another or go through a red signal.

Lei says he is out roughly $40,000 in medical and physical-therapy costs and that he lost $5,000 in wages due to the crash. His suit also seeks damages and attorney's fees.