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Transit Worker Killed on Columbus Circle Tracks

2007_04_colcircltrain.jpgLast night around 11:30PM, a 14-year veteran transit worker was killed by a train entering the Columbus Circle station. Daniel Boggs had been setting up stop lights for late-night track work when a southbound 3 train hit him.

Workers suggested that the train was running late and Boggs may have thought that trains had finished running on the 3 line. Fellow workers were devastated, remembering Boggs as a "really good guy." Ron Hall told the Daily News that Boggs "was a big guy. He was the type of guy who didn't need any help with anything. He was like a lumberjack, but he was a softy. He was a great chess player. You wouldn't expect it." And NY1 coverage (not online yet) was sad - you could see other workers crying.

The Columbus Circle 1/2/3 tracks curve as Broadway moves from the Midtown to the Upper West Side as you can see from the subway map. One worker told the News, "There's a curve at the mouth of the tunnel, but it's not so bad that you can't see." We always cringe whenever we see people popping their heads over the tracks to see if a train is coming.

Photograph of a 1 train entering Columbus Circle by edEx on Flickr

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Comments [rss]

  • the contractors who work in the tunnels without a question deserve great wages, the one's behind the booth playing solitaire do not.

  • jmchez

    Unavoidable accidents can not be foreseen. This one was avoidable. How is it that after 100 years of working on the subway there could be such a lack of communication that allowed the train to come through when a man was working on the tracks?

    I can not believe that the MTA does not have a procedure to make sure that all train conductors in the vicinity or approaching an area where work is going are warned a ahead of time. It's a matter of, literally, life and death! Relying on schedules without an explicit acknowledgment of the conductor knowing what's going on is insane.

  • jg

    thisiswhy:

    I don't think anyone disagrees with you

  • thisiswhy

    This is sad. :-(

    Sorry to play devil's advocate, but this risk is why the transit workers deserve to get paid a decent wage.

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