Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley today announced the indictment of an MBTA trolley driver for grossly negligent operation of the Green Line train he drove into another subway car while allegedly sending a text message.

Two months to the day after the May 8 collision in the tunnels beneath downtown Boston, the Suffolk County Special Grand Jury returned an indictment charging AIDEN QUINN (D.O.B. 11/24/84) of Attleboro with gross negligence by a person in control of a train, a crime punishable by up to three years in state prison or a fine of up to $5,000.

“When people board a public conveyance, they place their lives and safety in the operator’s hands,” Conley said. “They depend on the driver’s good judgment to protect them, and in the overwhelming majority of cases that judgment delivers them safely. On May 8, though, good judgment was not present in the driver’s seat.”

Working hand-in-hand with investigators from the MBTA Transit Police, Suffolk prosecutors assigned to Conley’s Major Felony Bureau led the grand jury investigation, eliciting sworn testimony from more than a dozen witnesses and introducing phone records and other documentary evidence establishing that Quinn was typing a text message on his Motorola cellular phone while operating Green Line car #3612. That car was leading an attached car and traveling southwest away from Government Center and toward Park Street station shortly after 7:00 p.m. Prosecutors allege that Quinn failed to observe the track ahead of him for a distance of almost 600’ while he was typing the text message.

As Quinn was texting, he ran through yellow and red warning lights at about 25 mph within the subway tunnel. Quinn’s train then struck the two-car train ahead of him, which was stopped at another red light and had its brake lights on. Evidence shows that Quinn pulled his emergency brake just eight feet from the rear of the stationary cars – a distance insufficient to stop the moving train. The collision knocked the stationary cars about 36 feet down the track and caused more than $9 million in damages.

A total of 62 passengers on both trains received medical attention in the aftermath of the crash, with 49 transported by ambulance from the scene. None suffered life-threatening injuries, but some sustained serious and lasting ill effects, including:

1. A 28-year-old Lynn woman, who suffered a broken pelvis and has no medical guarantee of future mobility;

2. A 19-year-old Salem woman, who suffered a concussion and fractured vertebrae.

3. A 35-year-old Charlestown woman, whose right shoulder was separated from her collarbone;

4. A 39-year-old New Hampshire man was referred to a plastic surgeon for a four- to six-inch gash to his head;

5. A 20-year-old Boston woman suffered a broken tailbone;

6. A 32-year-old Brookline woman who was five months pregnant and suffered a sprained ankle; and

7. A 67-year-old Marblehead man suffered muscle injuries and a contusion to the walls to his chest.

Testing by the MBTA and National Transportation Safety Board indicated that the brakes on Quinn’s train were working properly, that there were no defects in the tunnel lights or tracks, and that the cause of the collision was human error.

Quinn later made voluntary statements to MBTA Transit Police indicating that he had been sending a text message at the time of the collision. Those statements were corroborated by independent evidence and multiple witnesses who testified before the grand jury. Transit Police were instrumental in developing some of the evidence presented to the Special Grand Jury, Conley said.

Quinn is represented by attorney James Sultan. He is expected for arraignment in the Magistrate’s Session of Suffolk Superior Court on July 20.