I am definitely open to the possibility that I am not looking at this decision to post a photo of a dead man from all relevant angles. However, I am comfortable saying that even if it was a family member of my own, I can not get my head around, aside from devout religious reasins, why the posting of this photo illicits such a strong reaction. It may be unseemly, unwarranted, etc...but I don't think it is.

Though even if one fels that it is, so what?

Ones opinions about what might be graphic, unseemly, in poor taste, etc...is way too subjective to warrant it allowing one to base an opinion on whether or not something is appropiate, newsworthy, or even proper. Someone met there death on a subway track in NYC. Gothamist has a picture of the dead body and posted it. A non-event as far as I'm concerned.

This sensationalist shit is why I don't buy the Post or the Daily News. Grow up, gothamist. How would the victim's family feel if they knew that this picture was here?

Followup to my posting on Gothamist Contribute:

The accident occurred at the 74 St./Roosevelt Ave station in Jackson Heights. Contrary to the article in the New York Post, the train was not stationary and was in fact, rolling into the station when the fall took place. (I was in the second car.) The train never fully entered the station and only two-thirds of the cars made it out of the tunnel when this all went down. After the train struck the victim, it took the length of almost two and a half cars before it came to a complete stop. There was no way someone was holding the doors because they couldn't have been open. But it does sound reasonable that the victim fell and hit his head against the oncoming train because his body wound up on the platform, and not on the tracks. A couple of more pics:

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/9355/90606811kh.jpg

the motorman walking over to access the scene

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/4691/90606838tn.jpg

possible blood stain at the front of the train

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/905/90606848so.jpg

the motorman returned to the car and waited to give his statement

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/8905/90606857fo.jpg

traumatized

What is the problem...it is an excellent reminder to not run on the platform because it could happen to anyone. My mom once fell down the stairs and was hurt pretty badly.

On the other hand, if just one of the yahoos who believes shoving people around on an already crowded track gets freaked out by this picture (which, honestly? Is really nowhere near as graphic as I'd expected) then is it really such a bad thing?

I'm amazed it's only once every two weeks.

Comes off like ambulance chasing to me too. I mean, if there was no photograph, Gothamist wouldn't have made such a big deal about the death, right?

In any case, if someone gets hit by a train every two weeks (really?), then it makes sense that the media doesn't report every single subway, because then it falls in the category of "Dog bites man", not "Man bites dog".

The NY Times had a story a few months back about the trauma train conductors suffer when they hit someone with a train. I don't have access to the NYT archives, but I thought it said that around on average four people are hit every month. Maybe one of you folks with Lexis-Nexis can look it up...

That being said, I can see why Gothamist reported on this, but I think the photo falls a bit into ambulance-chasing. It's kind of bullshit to claim some sort of journalist-integrity to run this photo. It probably was more like, "Look we've got a photo of a dead guy, let's run it."

Once every two weeks someone eats it from a train? If its true, it does seem pretty high, but not entirely surprising. Even myself, when a train comes rolling by and the air sweeps over me, I always restrain myself from doing a Michael Jackson "Hooooo!" move. God I'm a nerd.

this was reported on Sunday in the Post. The man was running down the stairs at the Roosevelt Ave station in Jackson Heights to catch the train, his friend was holding the door open. Then the man tripped on the stairs and fell head first into the side of the train and died.

This is very tragic.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/61559.htm

Everytime I cross the street in haste without looking properly, or get too close a subway car as it passes by, or walk into a bad neighborhood late at night, I think "one day I'll get it."

I'm really glad that I didn't continue reading because...I totally forgot what "jump" means. I was thinking, um, did he jump? So maybe, um, don't use journo jargon and make it a little more clear....

Anyway, no, I don't want to see the graphic photos but yes, I want to know if there are actually people being killed on the trains every two weeks because that probably does mean the MTA needs to do a better job of prevention. Is that a legit statistic? It seems really high. And no, people don't deserve to be killed by trains but it does make me pretty crazy to see how close people stand to the edge when the trains come in. I did that stupid thing once where you lean out to see if a train is coming, and when I leaned back and away from the edge, there was a 7 train coming from the other direction. I try not to think about how i was seconds away from...yeah, whatever. So I keep away. It's not worth it.

Editor's note: the unedited version of the photograph is after the jump-- it's a horrible thing to see, but subway deaths are a part of life here in the city, and that's what this site is about.

um, i'm doing alright NOT GETTING KILLED WALKING INTO TRAINS without gothamist's illustrated ambulance chasing, but if this is what you need...

i disagree with essther...i check gothamist's extra extra to find interesting local news that i don't get from the major publications, ie. nytimes, bbc, etc...

and if people are being killed by subways once every two weeks, couldn't we all use friendly reminders to *stay away from the tracks*?

i don't understand the essther's comment. how is a man getting killed on an nyc subway NOT worth letting the public know about?

Bullshit - you do not stand in high esteem as a worthy proponent of the 'news'. Truly, regardless of having a picture, what is 'newsworthy' of a man being killed by a train. If this was your brother/father/boyfriend/husband - would you be upset by the lack of 'news'coverage of the incident. It is not news. Stop it, gothamist, stop it. Your trivial attempt to become legitimate as a news source is pisspoor. Let me rely on you for the elephants coming out of the tunnel, the free pizza at bars, the closing of a local club and nothing else.

You are not anything more than the Page 6 of the hipster-posers.

Maybe he's this guy?

He was running for the train in the Jackson Heights station when he slipped on the stairs and his head hit the side of the subway car.

why does it matter?

which Queens station was this?