The accident led to new speed restrictions and safety improvements in the vicinity of Back Bay and a revamp of Amtrak's locomotive engineer training program.

The Night Owl was Amtrak's overnight service on the Northeast Corridor and was scheduled to arrive at Boston's South Station at 8:35 AM on December 12.

At the time of the accident, the commuter train was coming to a scheduled stop at Back Bay, and had five crew and 900 passengers aboard.

The lead Amtrak locomotive, #272, entered the curve into Back Bay at 76 miles per hour (122 km/h), more than twice the maximum authorized speed.

The subsequent NTSB investigation reported 453 injuries: 50 on the Night Owl, 396 on the MBTA train, and seven firefighters who responded to the crash.

As a road foreman for Amtrak in 1979, he ignored several stop signals and almost reached an open drawbridge at Pelham Bay.

[1]: 8–9 Review of the train event recorder showed that the Night Owl had exceeded the maximum authorized speed of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), apparently to make up for lost time between New Haven and Boston.

[1]: 23 Given the involvement of Abramson, the NTSB reviewed Amtrak's locomotive engineer training program and pinpointed several areas for improvement:[1]: 35–38 The NTSB found that Amtrak was entirely at fault for the accident and that the "probable cause" was Abramson's failure to brake in time and Copeland's failure to supervise him properly.

The NTSB also faulted Amtrak's supervision of its engineer training program and the lack of warning devices at the curve.