Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Early Addition
The NYC Transit Authority continued its investigation of Sunday's fatal accident involving a track worker and an oncoming G train. "Non-essential" track work has been suspended as the agency looks at its safety protocol. NYC Transit Authority president Howard Roberts suggested work should have been suspended earlier, given that another transit worker was killed last week, "If I had any idea we would be here this afternoon on this subject, clearly we would have started the process we are in now last week."
A Transit Workers Union official tells the Daily News that Marvin Franklin and Jeffrey Hill were asked by a supervisor to move a dolly from the the other side of the tracks at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station. Although the A and C lines were suspended, the G train was still active, and Franklin was hit by an oncoming train:
One union official said the supervisor also was pitching in with manual labor while trying to keep an eye out for any approaching trains. A transit source said the workers should have stayed off the tracks, and the supervisor should have stopped them.Yesterday's NY Times article reported that the dolly could have been transported in a more circuitous route without going across active tracks.
At the funeral of Daniel Boggs, who was killed by a southbound 3 train at Columbus Circle, a transit worker spoke out about the conditions in which they work. Percival Thomas told the Post, "We need more communications between the departments. Give us radios! We work in one of the most dangerous situations in the city. But the public does not realize it." Which makes us realize that we always thought they did have radios.
Photograph of a track worker on the tracks in Brooklyn by NYCViaRachel on Flickr
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Look this is the way it's suppose to go . You have a track gang of say [10] to [15] plus one flagger to set up warning flags along the stretch of track their going to be working on . The flagger is responsible for laying down the flags at certain points of distance from the actual work-site . "Red" flags indicate do not enter this section of track . These flag are set to warn a motorman not to enter the area beyond them . Also the track-workers use the lanterns for the same purpose . A set set "Green" flag means proceed along the route unimpeeded . "Yellow" flags are caution flags meaning slow down and proceed at a slower pace (Those are posted, and are in the Manuel that all motormen have to know in order to drive the trains)and prepare to stop . I wasn't there so I can only speculate how it went down but I'm willing to bet somebody fucked up there ! Either the track-worker didn't set up the flags properly, Or the motorman was driving too fast (AS they usually do when entering the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. station in either direction)and by the time they saw this guy had already hit him .
Sometimes it pays to be pro-active.
How bout spending some money on radios within your own crew to warn others? How bout some flashing lights?
This is what happens when one does the mandated minimum in a civil service job. All civil service, same with the cops, they too will complain.
Don't like the job? Quit like any other worker. No one put a gun to your head.
They do . The problem is some of the crews have don't utilize them . Anyway you look at this, It's one of the most dangerous jobs in the city, No matter how many safety precautions they put in place something will go wrong . I read that the reason for the worker that got hit by the train at Hoyt-Schermerhorn was because he crossed the tracks and got caught by an incoming train . You can't protect against that . It's a judgement call !