It never makes sense to jump into the tracks. It doesn’t make sense to retrieve an iPod or a wallet, keys or a water bottle. Yet, over the last few months, a handful of straphangers have done just that, often with tragic results. Just last Friday, in fact, an N train killed a man who jumped into the track bed in Astoria to help his companion retrieve a jacket. Over the course of a year, nearly 90 are struck by trains, and most of those accidents occur when people value their material items over their lives.
Today, in The Times, Michael Grynbaum and Rebecca White explore track-jumpers. Some people laugh off the danger as the cost of living. “I can either pay $300 for a new Blackberry, or I can jump down on the track,” Sean Frawley told the paper. Others — and those at New York City Transit — underscore the foolishness of jumping onto tracks that are deeper than they appear. “It’s just not worth taking the risk,” Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges. “In one instant the coast looks clear, and you think you can hop down, retrieve your item and hop back up. In reality, it’s not that simple.”
The lesson, of course, is an obvious one: It just isn’t worth it. I’d rather see my iPod or jacket run over by a train than my leg or entire body. But if Darwin is going to rule the day, the subway train tracks are a great place to find him.
Addendum: New York City Transit has covered this topic in its TransitTrax podcast series. The transcript of their pro-safety piece is available here, and you can grab the audio right here. Transit officials say workers respond to approximately 12-15 calls per day from straphangers who have dropped their iPods or wallets on the tracks.
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17 comments
People should just wait for the train and once it leaves get their items because you know the next train is not coming for a while…
In fact, people shouldn’t go into the tracks at all, and the person who got a ticket for doing so was right to get summonsed. Rather, they should find a station agent or a cop and ask for help. I can’t imagine I’m the only one who thinks a life just isn’t worth an iPod or worse.
You don’t take the Lexington Avenue Line very much, do you.
I actually do and there is a 5 minute gap between trains. On other lines like the R there is around a 10 minute gap. Plenty of time.
I really, really hope you’re joking. If you’re not, I suggest you look up “Darwin Award.”
I guess I should stop with the joking, I don’t even know how people drop stuff on the tracks, and don’t even hear the trains coming. The real danger is people leaning over the tracks to peer down the tunnel, it can lead to a slip or someone accidentally nudging them on a crowded platform. By the way Darwin Award – Carlos Mencia.
I hope you’re not crediting Carlos Mencia for the Darwin Awards. That phrase has been around longer than he has.
I wonder if part of the problem is the way Wesley Autrey was publicized as such a hero after jumping on the tracks and squeezing, along with another person, in the trough between the rails with little more than a grease smudge on his hat. If he can do it, it makes other people think that they can escape harm’s way on the trackbed, too.
I’ve hopped on the tracks twice, and both times I had a clear view down the Lexington main line, and could see the next train coming far in the distance.
I know how long the train takes to arrive, and I’m fit and in good shape. Hopping down and back up was easy. I left my bag and jacket on the platform to make it even easier.
Summonsing someone for a “crime” without a victim is awful.
Bad opinion post; go back to rainfandom, and shucking for the unions.
Your the one shucking, jive turkey. Keep hopping on the tracks. Maybe you’ll get hepatitis.
I’m inclined to think this problem may only get worse when stations get “next train” signs. People will see that the next train is allegedly not coming for, say, 7 minutes. And they will take the chance… even though that technology is fallible (and there could always be an out of service train or something that wouldn’t appear on the display).
Yup. Then they’ll sue when they’re hit by the Sperry car or garbage train.
In DC, out of service trains are listed on the display as well.
How is “find a station agent or a cop” supposed to help matters? They can’t safely retrieve the item either. Will they stop traffic to save somebody’s Blackberry? Surely the costs of such a disruption are far greater than $300. I guess they can make a note of the owner and have the item retrieved the next time the tracks are out of service? At any rate, I think people would be more likely to heed signs saying to contact station agents/police if the signs noted how the latter could be expected to respond.
It should definitely be noted, however, that this far from a “crime without a victim”. The costs to the MTA and riders of the disruption caused when a train hits someone are massive. If anything there should be much harsher punishments for running a significant risk of wasting the time of hundreds of thousands of people.
They have a robot arm that can retrieve your belongings. May not be in time to beat the next train, though.
This is one of the many reasons to install platform-screen doors, at least in the long run.
Also a reason to travel around with less crap, stand back from the edge, take a deep breath and slow the “F” down. I am amazed at the contortions I see of people peering down the tunnels with all their crap hanging off their “outboard” shoulder over the tracks. Get real, peeps!
In my freshman year of high school, one of the kids crossed the tracks in the westside IRT Canal St. station. I was the only one who seemed to think this was a stupid idea. Luckily he wasn’t killed by a train.
I just don’t get why people are dumb enough to go down onto the tracks. It’s like they think a few hundred tons of steel barreling down the tracks at 40 miles an hour is going to be able to either stop on a dime or magically pass over them.