大汉奸柳传志
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Joycelyn Johnson at a news conference to announce that she intends to sue the MBTA for injuries she suffered at the Harvard MBTA station. Her attorney Thomas E. Flaws joined her.© Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
CAMBRIDGE — Joycelyn Johnson, a Harvard University doctoral candidate injured when obsolete utility equipment fell on her at the MBTA’s Harvard Station, said Wednesday it was “honestly ridiculous” that commuters no longer feel safe on the public transit system.
Johnson, 28, spoke to reporters alongside her lawyer near the Red Line station where on May 1 a box and corroded strapping broke free from a column and struck her while she was standing on the train platform.
“To know that we aren’t able to be safe while taking the transit system is just honestly ridiculous,” she said. “Compared to the New York transit system and the Seattle transit system, Boston’s commuting system as a whole falls short entirely. So I am frustrated.”
Her lawyer, Thomas E. Flaws, of the law firm Altman Nussbaum Shunnarah, said Johnson separated her right shoulder and plans to sue the MBTA to recoup medical costs and hold the agency accountable for what Flaws called a “preventable” equipment failure.
Johnson said on May 1 she was talking on the phone while waiting for a train home to Quincy, her commute for about 10 months during her first year as a student at Harvard. Originally from Atlanta, Johnson previously lived in Seattle and New York, she said.
When the equipment fell on her, Johnson said she felt numb before pain in her shoulder, back, and right arm set in. She said she went to an emergency room twice in the following days and was prescribed pain medication while doctors figure out a treatment plan.
Johnson said she has not felt comfortable taking the subway since her injury and has been driving more.
Flaws said he plans to send the MBTA notice of their intent to sue the agency in the coming days, which he said gives the agency six months to respond before a lawsuit can be filed.
