A Boston trolley operator who rear-ended another trolley Friday night because he was text-messaging his girlfriend has ruined cell-phone chatting for everyone at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which has now instructed workers to leave their cell phones at home. 49 people were injured in the collision, which is just the latest example of train wrecks caused by distracted operators—last September a Union Pacific Freight train engineer in California was found to have sent his last text message about a minute before killing 25 people, including himself, in a horrible accident. Now LIRR officials here in New York say they're considering a ban on employees' cell phones, too. Currently, LIRR engineers, who operate the trains, are permitted to bring their personal cell phones on board, but they must be shut off and stowed in a bag. A simpler alternative to an outright ban would be for the LIRR to just hire John Clifford, the famous LIRR cell phone scold, to crack some skulls. Photo courtesy threecee’s Flickr.