Off track: The MTA has options to keep New Yorkers safe from subway collisions. It must stop dawdling
Every time a New Yorker ends up dead or grievously injured by a subway train, we ask the question: What could have been done to prevent this?
There are some abstract answers. If the hit resulted from a suicide attempt or a shove — as was the case with the tragic death of Michelle Go, who was pushed onto the tracks in an apparently random attack by a man with psychiatric issues — we rightly wonder how our mental health systems failed and where someone could have intervened. If it was occasioned by the use of alcohol or drugs, we might question the availability of substance abuse recovery and resources.
Yet there are also much more concrete tools that might stop this from happening, technical or infrastructural measures to make it physically impossible for someone to go on the tracks, or get trains to come to a halt before they make impact. The most straightforward of these is installing platform doors, like those seen in metro systems around the world, which open up only when the train is at the station and opening its own doors.
Platform doors make sense intuitively, but are expensive, and aren’t a silver bullet. For a variety of reasons including the age of most subway stations and the inconsistent placement of train doors (not to mention New York’s inability to build any subway infrastructure without spending ridiculously more than comparable global cities), installing these would be logistically complex and very expensive. Still, it’s ridiculous that after years of skirting around the issue, the MTA has yet to so much as thoroughly study the issue, let alone conduct a pilot. A test slated for the L train expansion was ultimately scrapped.
If the MTA really believes this is unworkable, there are cheaper alternatives. The agency already piloted a program that would use cameras and sensors to alert conductors of people or debris falling on the tracks, finding that it was effective. Such technologies are now getting a fresh look. Look hard. Look fast. There are lives to be saved.
