A man was hit in the head and bloodied by a passing 1 train on the northbound platform of the 72nd Street subway station on Tuesday shortly before noon, according to NYPD and a witness who showed up just after the collision.
“A male was standing on platform edge as train was entering the station,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “The train made contact with him. He remained on the platform. He received a head laceration.”
Police did not have further information on what preceded the crash.
Jonathan, the witness (who asked to be identified by his first name), wrote that the victim was being attended to by emergency workers when he arrived. A photo sent in by the witness showed blood on the platform. “This station is perpetually overcrowded and dangerous,” he wrote.
An MTA spokesperson confirmed that a man had been hit but did not have further details.
1 trains temporarily ran express from 72nd to 96th.
Expect longer wait times for 1 trains in both directions after we helped an injured customer at 72 St.https://t.co/PoBzcDSKya
— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) February 4, 2020
The station is overcrowded in the morning, not at noon. I was there not long after the incident but going downtown. It wasn’t crowded at all.
People have to use common sense. Don’t stand near the edge; don’t peer over the edge if countdown clock says anything 2 minutes or less.
Also people should not stand in the narrow sections near the stairs during crowded times. Other people need to move to the back or front of the platform to give others room.
What a delight to hear that my cousin, M. Pipik, was on this site offering his ever welcome wisdom.
I find that walking to a different place on this and similar station platforms, it is quite difficult to maneuver around the staircases even when the station is not so crowded. How on earth can you move to the other end of the platform and get around the staircase when the station is so crowded and people are already standing in that narrow space between the staircase and the tracks. Seriously, I am surprised there are not more incidents, especially with seniors who have poor balance.
Did you mean to write something else? “People need to move to the front or the back of the platform to give others room?” Then where do you suggest they stand? Try using this station in the morning and afternoon when people are shoving you…going in…coming out…and up and down the staircase. This is the station from hell.
Pipik was clear and specific. The statement was preceded by “…Also people should not stand in the narrow sections near the stairs during crowded times…”
Yes, I read that, hence my reply. Don’t stand near the edge, don’t stand near the narrow sections, and ‘other’ people need to move to the back or the front of the platform to give ‘others’ room. So where is this magic section where ‘others’ are suppose to move when you’re already standing shoulder to shoulder (not to mention strollers, suitcases, shopping bags) with other people?
I ride the downtown express daily in the mornings during the height of rush hour – yes, the platform is crowded but room can be found away from the edge of the platform, there is no reason to be standing on the edge.
It would be interesting to know (though of course we never will) whether the gentleman was (a) wearing headphones or (b) engrossed in his cell phone at the time of the incident.
Or perhaps the man was hearing impaired.
How else are you not aware that a train is coming straight at you??
The injured person might have been looking the wrong way for an arriving train.
The MTA has costs that are an order of magnitude higher than other cities around the world. It’s not underfunded, it’s been poorly managed by Governor Cuomo for the last 12 years. Other cities have barriers that protect riders and prevent this kind of thing from happening. Until we demand more from the man in charge of the subway, we are going to keep seeing incidents like this occur.
The governor is not in the common sense business.
Sorry, I can’t think of any subway systems in the US that have platform barriers (Boston, Philadelphia, DC, SF, LA). The cost of barriers would prohibitive and, in my opinion, not cost-effective. The number of passenger injuries is extremely small when compared to the total number of riders. I’m guessing that half of them could be eliminated if people were more attentive to those around them. I never allow myself to not be aware of who is standing next to me when a train approaches. And I don’t assume that “normal-looking” people don’t do crazy things. Leaning over a platform when a train is arriving is not smart, by the way. I don’t blame the NYCTA or the MTA for today’s incident.
Add Chicago to that list. Also – and it has been mentioned in articles about barriers – car doors do not align identically across different types of equipment (generaly on the IND/BMT), and the technology required to adapt to that would be something not out-of-the-box. Consider the potential for malfunction. And future rolling stock will have wider doors. Better to remind people not to lean into arriving trains.
Guys, New York doesn’t aspire to be the greatest city in America. It’s supposed to be the greatest city in the world. Plenty of cities have these life saving barriers – Sydney, São Paulo, Toronto (and more! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_screen_doors). The technology exists and any reasons we’ve been given about why we can’t have them here (“the doors won’t line up!” etc) should be treated as the lame excuses they are.
Apparently you glossed over the following in Wiki link:
“Their primary disadvantage is their cost; installing a system typically costs several million USD per station. When used to retrofit older systems, they limit the kind of rolling stock that may be used on a line, as train doors must have exactly the same spacing as the platform doors; this results in additional costs due to depot upgrades and otherwise unnecessary purchases of rolling stock.”
MTA/NYCT is strapped as it is; and has a huge wish list just to catch up with decades of deferred maintenance, so where is the “millions” of dollars for this platform retrofits going to come from?
Re: “…on the IND/BMT”
O.M.G.!!
A blast-from-the-past! Yes, the subways were once identified by the labels BMT, IND, and…IRT.
As usual, the NYT solved the BMT-IND-IRT puzzle in a June 30th, 1990 article, explaining:
IRT = Interborough Rapid Transit Company;
IND = Independent System;
BMT = Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation.
The story also explains which of today’s lettered/numbered lines came from each of those 3-letter lines of old.
It’s a fascinating piece of NYC history
I, for one, disdain the use of “lettered lines” and “numbered lines.” The technical names are DIvision A (old IRT; numbered lines) and Division B (old BMT/IND, lettered lines). The many connections between the original IND and BMT divisions (which began in the fifties) have blurred those two identities, but the combination is correct. Of interest: the #7 (IRT) is considered part of Division B within NYTCA operations. But the point I was making is that there will be different door placements for many years to come and to attempt technology to accommodate that is crazy – imagine a malfunction, which we know will occur with regularity.
Problem is many, many subway platforms are very narrow. This coupled with increased ridership, and a seemingly inability for people to disconnect themselves from various devices, and pay attention to surroundings means bad things happen.
In just past several weeks alone we’ve had several incidents on NYC subways including a young woman who “fell” onto tracks subsequently losing both feet (IIRC).
MTA/NYCT makes numerous announcements and other public service advertisements warning people *NOT* to stand near edge of platforms while trains enter or leave stations. But yet it continues, and result is week after week we hear of these unfortunate accidents.
MTA/NYCT spent millions painting yellow or otherwise marking out area which behind people should stand on subway platforms. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand their meaning.