MBTA train, car collide at Sudbury Road

A car drove into the side of an MBTA commuter train that was pulling into the Acton Center stop on Monday afternoon.

The crash occurred at the crossing at Sudbury Road near Thoreau Street around 4:30 p.m.

MBTA Transit Police said in a statement posted to Twitter early Tuesday morning that the “operator of a 2019 Mazda stated she accidently pressed on the gas pedal as an #MBTA train was passing through. She drove into the side of moving train.”

All safety and warning equipment at the site “was functioning properly,” the statement said.

Acton Fire Department officials said the driver was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“I saw that she was removed from the car and moving her arms and talking with the EMTs,” said Joshua Burgel, who heard the collision from his nearby office.

Acton Police closed Sudbury Road from Grant Street to Thoreau due to the incident.

Debris was scattered across the platform and the nearby Cumberland Farms parking lot while emergency crews placed tape around the damaged car.

Alex Busko, 19, of Bangor, Maine, was aboard the train from Boston when he felt a “bit of an impact.” The Acton Bridge talked to him while he waited for his aunt from Littleton to pick him up at the scene. 

Busko said he was unsure of what happened until an announcement informed passengers that the train had hit a car. 

Passengers were held on the train “for a few minutes” before they were allowed to get off, Busko said. 

Concordian Cat McGrath made her way to the crash site after hearing helicopters above her Belknap Street home. She was one of many watching the aftermath of the crash while a Transit Police officer directed traffic along Thoreau Street.

She recognizes the sound of helicopters circling incidents on Route 2. This one sounded different.

“I figured it had to be the train,” she told The Bridge. 

Venkat Paranjothi lives in Chelmsford and was here to drop his daughter off at a Mathnasium class in the same lot as Crosby’s Marketplace.

The stopped train blocked their way, so he parked in the Thoreau Depot lot on the Thoreau side of the tracks and walked the rest of the way with his child. 

He leaned against his car while emergency crews remained on scene, and he said he was glad to hear the driver was not seriously injured. Then he turned to logistical concerns. 

“Hopefully they’ll clear the road” before his daughter’s class ends, he said.

Repairs to the crossing continued late into Monday night.

This breaking story has been updated.