Man dies after commuter rail strikes vehicle on South Shore

Local News

All crossing lane equipment appeared to be functioning as normal, according to Cohasset’s chief of police.

A man was killed Saturday after his vehicle was struck by an MBTA Greenbush Commuter Rail train at the Beechwood Street railroad crossing in Cohasset.

Cohasset police responded to the scene at approximately 11:20 a.m. following reports of a collision between a train and motor vehicle. They found a 78-year-old man, who had been driving a 2015 GMC pickup truck, with “traumatic injuries,” police said. 

Paramedics from the Cohasset Fire Department administered care, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley told the Boston Herald that there did not appear to be any issues with the crossing lane equipment. He said the intersection is in a “no whistle zone,” meaning trains do not sound horns or whistles. 

“The trains on the Greenbush Line do not use the horn unless they see something on the right-of-way, so that’ll be part of the investigation as well,” Quigley said to the Herald. “The train is always going to win, and even if the gates are up, I still look.” 

Police have not yet identified the man. The incident remains under investigation by the Cohasset Police Department as well as MBTA Transit Police and Massachusetts State Police. 

Quigley told the Herald that four people have been killed in vehicle-train collisions in the past four years, two of them in the past month.