By Gus Saltonstall
A woman was hit and killed by a 1 train Sunday night at the West 72nd Street station after she jumped in front of the incoming subway, a police spokesperson told West Side Rag.
The 59-year-old woman was found unresponsive within the station at 10:40 p.m., police added. She was pronounced dead shortly after.
There was no criminality.
In the summer of 2023, the MTA began testing blue lights within stations that can have a calming effect and deter suicide attempts, as originally reported by the CITY.
The blue-light pilot program came after there were 88 track deaths in New York in 2022, a 35 percent increase from the averages in 2018 and 2019. The majority of these deaths, though, had to do with medical emergencies, with fewer than 10 percent being classified as suicides or suicide attempts, according to the New York Post.
This past summer on July 10, three men took their own lives jumping in front of trains in the span of 11 hours, including one at the same West 72nd Street station on the Upper West Side.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, there are resources to help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day by calling 988. Its website offers services including a live chat.
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Condolences to her loved ones.
How very sad. My condolences to her friends and family.
This is a reminder to check on our folks…that call, text or face to face might save a life. 💔
As someone who has dealt with intense suicidal ideation nearly all her life, what you say about contact is absolutely right. An improvement in support can improve one’s quality of life. That’s what works, not that “blue light” nonsense. That feels very “Let them eat cake!” like, “Society is terrible and people are isolated but here’s some blue light! Don’t you feel better?!” No, those of us who struggle and suffer do not.
The MTA can’t change society and social isolation. Blue lights is something they can do. If it helps one person that’s better than doing nothing.
Any thoughts as to why a 35% increase from 2019 to 2022? So troubling.
Starts with C and rhymes with Ovid. (Or whatever you want to call the social ramifications of the pandemic.) . Those years were exceptionally hard on people with mental/social/emotional vulnerability, young and old. Every support system was disrupted, stressed. Group programs, simple jobs in retail, hospitality, restaurants – so many folks with the least resilience and adaptability, emotional, social, financial are still just struggling. Not that every other group didn’t have plenty of extreme stress, from parents of small children to health care workers, to older adults. Just that some groups might go this way more than others.
Condolences as well to the driver of the train. That must be an AWFUL experience.
I read somewhere that most subway drivers have seen jumpers, and that they nearly always make eye contact before…
I am sorry for this woman and her family, but I am even more sorry for the driver. Many can’t return to work after these terrible incidents.