Authors: U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)

Date of Publication:  April 1982

Sponsoring Agency:  U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)

Performing Organization:  U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)

Report No: NTSB-SIR-82-1

Abstract:

Approximately 7:52 p.m. on Thursday, May 5, 1977, on the NYCTA Division A, No. 1 Line subway train near Franklin Street station in Manhattan, New York, a 22-year-old male passenger fell between the second and third cars of a five-car rail rapid transit train and was fatally injured.  As the train braked for the stop at the station, witnesses observed the victim passing between the cars, and it appeared to the witnesses that the victim fell through the chains to the roadbed.

During a 5-year period from 1977 through 1981, 25 of the 48 passenger fatalities reported by all rapid rail transit systems were between-car fatalities (about 52 percent).  During 1981, nine between-car passenger fatalities were reported; eight of the nine fatal accidents occurred on the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA).  The National Transportation Safety Board is concerned that the incidence of between-car passenger fatalities has continued since its recommendations in 1977.  The purpose of this report, therefore, is to analyze this problem primarily as it relates to the NYCTA system and to identify areas in which corrective action may be warranted.
 

No. of Pages:  26