A commuter rail train slammed into a car stuck on the tracks at the North Main Street grade crossing in Cohasset early Sunday, but everyone involved walked away unharmed. Cohasset police say the driver of a 2016 Toyota Camry, a 33-year-old Mansfield man delivering packages for an online delivery service, apparently made a wrong turn onto the railroad tracks before the vehicle became stuck. He got out and moved to safety before the train hit his car.
According to the Cohasset Police Department, the MBTA Commuter Rail train was traveling on the Greenbush Line toward Scituate when it struck the Camry at the crossing. The train stopped just short of the Cohasset MBTA commuter rail station, and Cohasset police officers and firefighter/paramedics arriving on scene found the heavily damaged Camry on the rail bed. The department says it received multiple 9-1-1 calls reporting the collision.
About 15 passengers were aboard the train at the time, and none of them were injured. The train crew also came away unhurt, and the driver of the Camry was not injured either, according to the same police account. The Camry itself was totaled, having sustained significant damage in the crash.
Police Chief Calls Driver's Decision Critical
Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said the outcome could have been far worse. “This could very easily have been a fatal incident,” Quigley said, according to the department's account of the crash. He credited the driver's choice to abandon the vehicle before impact, saying the driver made the critically important decision to get out of the vehicle and move away from the tracks.
North Main Street was closed for more than two hours while crews worked to remove the vehicle and debris from the railroad tracks. The crash remains under investigation by the Cohasset Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division alongside MBTA Transit Police, who are looking into the circumstances surrounding the collision.
Not the First Wrong Turn at This Crossing
This is not the first time a delivery driver has ended up on the tracks at this exact spot. In late October 2025, a delivery driver similarly turned onto the MBTA tracks at the North Main Street crossing near the Hingham town line, causing morning commuter rail delays, according to Boston 25 News. GPS navigation errors at suburban grade crossings have proven to be a recurring hazard for delivery workers unfamiliar with local roads.
The Greenbush Line runs 27.6 miles between Boston's South Station and Scituate across 10 stations, having restored passenger service through South Shore communities like Cohasset in 2007 after a nearly 50-year hiatus, per Wikipedia. The corridor's route through town centers has resulted in numerous active grade crossings, and this is not the first serious rail incident Cohasset has seen. In April 2025, a fatal collision on the same line killed a pedestrian and shut down service for four hours, as Hoodline previously reported.
A Persistent National Safety Problem
Grade crossing collisions remain one of the most persistent safety challenges facing rail operators nationwide. A person or vehicle is struck by a train roughly every three hours in the United States, resulting in more than 2,200 grade crossing collisions annually, according to data from Operation Lifesaver and the Federal Railroad Administration. More than 95% of all rail-related injuries and fatalities nationally are attributable to trespassers or highway-rail grade crossing collisions, per the Federal Railroad Administration.
Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 160, Section 218, driving a vehicle onto railroad tracks or right-of-way property without authorization constitutes illegal trespassing under state law. The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities maintains regulatory authority over the state's public highway-rail grade crossings, overseeing safety warning systems and crossing modifications. The MBTA Commuter Rail, operated under contract by Keolis Commuter Services since 2014, is the fifth-busiest commuter rail system in the country, serving roughly 104,000 daily weekday riders across 143 stations in eastern Massachusetts.
