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| NYP: Metro-North conductors are opening doors to nowhere (1321468) | |||
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NYP: Metro-North conductors are opening doors to nowhere |
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Posted by Gold_12th on Wed Oct 29 19:13:26 2014  Stand clear of the open doors! Metro-North conductors are accidentally opening train doors at or near stations where they don’t even connect to a platform — exposing riders to dangerous falls, The Post has learned. “There was nothing to step on,” said one stunned Manhattan commuter, who shot a video of the hazard during his morning commute on the New Haven line last Monday. The clip shows huge portions of platform missing at the Fordham station in The Bronx, where a train has pulled in and opened its doors alongside a construction pit. “If you were on your phone, not paying attention, you could have been seriously injured. It’s a huge deal. They could have killed someone,” the commuter told The Post. The passenger later reported the incident to the railroad, as well as the MTA Inspector General, a watchdog agency. A Metro-North spokesman said it is taking the report seriously and the railroad is investigating. The frightening incident did not happen in a vacuum, said the Commuter Action Group, a riders’ advocacy group for the beleaguered railroad, which pointed to similar cases this year. In May, Robert Formentin took a horrifying photo of an open door on the first car on an embankment near the Talmadge Hill Station on the Merritt Parkway in May. “If somebody walked out, they would have fallen 30 feet,” said Formentin, 53, of New Canaan. “It slopes down. It could have resulted in someone getting hurt. They avoided a major disaster.” It’s all the more alarming because of Metro-North’s troubled history last year, which included a deadly derailment in The Bronx, two trains colliding in Connecticut, and a track worker being killed, he added. “One would assume security is heightened, and train drivers [engineers] are taking extra precaution,” he said. “But mistakes happen, and some are fatal. It’s an issue, and hopefully it won’t happen again.” In April, riders also watched the last doors of a New Haven train to Grand Central open where there is no platform at both Stamford and Westport during the afternoon rush hour. “I would encourage all commuters if they see something to say something,” said Jim Cameron of the Commuter Action Group. “If there ever is an incident like this, it must be reported. I would hope Metro-North would be swift and transparent in its investigation of any of these potentially dangerous incidents.” The railroad has been in the spotlight over the past two years for five accidents, including a derailment in the Bronx that killed four people. The National Transportation Safety Board, which has been investigating the accidents, will release its findings and recommendations at Grand Central Station on Tuesday. http://nypost.com/2014/10/27/metro-north-conductors-are-opening-doors-to-nowhere/ |
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