Wheelchair-Bound Woman Survives Subway Crash

A scary incident at a Penn Station subway station: A woman in a wheelchair rolled into a moving subway. The 50-something woman apparently lost control of her wheelchair; the Post reports that she hit an uptown 2 train "just as it began pulling out, and ricocheted into a pillar." Yikes!

The woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. The Daily News noted, "Despite blood collecting on the platform, travelers went about their business" and a witness added, "There were a lot of people on the platform, but most of them didn't do anything [to help her]. That was the sad part."

Last year, there was an AP article about the difficulties disabled riders have in navigating the subways - Disabled Riders Coalition coordinator Michael Harris had to transfer three times to find a station that was accessible. And the MTA has lagged behind making sure subway station elevators are maintained for the disabled to the point that the Justice Department has launched an investigation. Here's a list of accessible MTA stations.

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By Jen Chung in News on October 1, 2007 9:06 AM

Comments [rss]

guest

Ok, the correct heading would be "woman who uses a wheelchair struck by subway train".

She was getting off and got stuck on the yellow "do not stand here" strip. This is a hazard the MTA is aware of, and hasn't bothered to fix. There was nothing this woman could do, other than avoid public transportation. She didn't lose control, she got stuck because of a hazard.

The picture is of a hospital type wheelchair. I use a manual wheelchair, and believe me, if you use a chair everyday, that isn't the kind you use.

galvo

i agree with #5 person, i know no malice is intended,

this is something the media needs to catch up on.

i believe the reason people with wheelchairs are rarely seen in the subways is because the accessible stations are so few, and the frequency of elevators outages is too common. if the elevator is out, they will have to travel to the next elevator station and take a bus back. Another problem is the many of the accessible stations trying to find a way out can be like a maze. Many times there is only one WC way out, due to one or two steps along the other routes. adding to the problem is the damn exits with the high barriers and mta operated gate exits . Had this problem getting a friend through penn station, the signage leading to the WC exit lead to a exit only manned till 9pm, there was no one there to buzz open the gate, had to spend another 15 minutes finding another way out. if a person using a wc is in between the stations in a train during a breakdown or fire they are gong to have to rely on the fire department to get them out

guest

Quite frankly I rarely see people in wheelchairs on the subway. But there do seem to be a good number of wheelchair users using public buses.

guest

People did go over to help immediately--the rest of us backed away because a crowd wasn't going to help any. EMS is what took a long time to show up.

guest

ARGH. "Wheelchair-bound" is roughly the equivalent of saying "Negro" or "colored." PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE say "wheelchair user."

guest

"A woman in a wheelchair rolled into a moving subway."

I spent at least 30 seconds trying to visualize this. Don't you mean she rolled into a subway train?

JRod5417

Further confirmation that NYC is populated by soulless, heartless, self-absorbed a-holes.

guest

there you have NY! there is so much attitude that builds this TOUGH RECKLESS SELFISH HERD mentality that...zombies!

guest

People don't help out of fear of getting sued or getting tied into an investigation and end up being late for work. Where were the MTA customer service agents? Aren't they suppose to be out and about in the station promoting goodwill, answering questions, seeingsomething and sayingsomething?