Subway safety
To The Editor:
I was so happy to hear Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer on 1010 WINS news radio Thursday morning calling for safer subways when the trains are coming into the station. Here Downtown, on the now defunct Community Board 1 World Trade Committee, we had been asking for this for years as part of the new Fulton Street Station through Platform Screen Doors.
PSD’s are used now in Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. The PSD’s are used by the Port of Authority on their Air Train. They allow the platform to be air conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter, and mostly prevent platform accidents.
There have been six NYC subway related platform deaths in the last one and a half months. In CB1 WTC meetings, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority informed us that there are no official records kept of injuries and deaths due to open platforms – but one doctor at Downtown Hospital told me all you have to do to realize the need is see one of the many who come in weekly with subway injuries. A few months back, the MTA started to publish official figures.
When Manhattan B.P. Stringer states that “too many people are dying,” our MTA needs to listen, as this will save lives. Possibly this can start here Downtown with PSD’s at the new Fulton Street World Trade Center Station.
Tom Goodkind
Member, Community Board 1
