(The following story by Steve Ritea appeared on the Newsday website on June 13.)
NEW YORK — A spike in Long Island Rail Road passengers’ claims of injury in gap incidents in large part caused the railroad to pay a record $52.9 million in injury and property claims last year – 2 1/2 times the amount paid the previous year – according to a report released yesterday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The number of gap-injury claims rose 33 percent in 2007 over 2006, the report shows, a dramatic increase that an LIRR spokesman attributed to more public awareness of the gap between train cars and platforms.
A Newsday investigation published early last year reported more than 800 gap accidents since 1995 and chronicled the LIRR’s previously lax response to the problem. Since then, the railroad has embarked on a massive remediation campaign, planning to spend $46 million by 2012 on gap-shrinking techniques that include shifting platforms, installing metal plates at the base of train car doors and attaching boards to platforms.
“Gap awareness, due to extensive publicity, reached an all-time high in 2007, which may have contributed to an increase in claims,” railroad spokesman Joe Calderone said. “Customer and employee safety remains the LIRR’s No. 1 priority.”
DiNapoli’s report cites a large increase in 2007 in claims from passengers who tore clothing on armrests of the railroad’s 836 M-7 cars. Claims for torn clothing cost the LIRR and Metro-North Railroad $285,000, with 1,400 claims filed last year, the report said. New armrests will be installed in the M-7s over the next two years, Calderone said. The LIRR said it is spending $4.7 million for the new armrests.
LIRR Commuters Council President Gerard Bringmann said he’s satisfied with the railroad’s response to both problems. “In both cases they’re actually working on fixing the situation,” he said.
The overall number of claims filed against the LIRR peaked at 1,936 last year – a twofold increase over 2003, the report said. The number of gap-specific claims rose from an average of 86 each year between 1996 and 2005, increasing to 161 in 2006 and 214 in 2007.
Since 1998, the report said, the LIRR has received 1,034 gap claims. The railroad has closed 549 without payments and 286 are unresolved. Of the remaining 199, the railroad has paid or will pay $16 million in settlements, including $10.8 million last year to former Rockette Sheila Rann of Forest Hills, who was 65 when she fell into the gap at her LIRR station in 2004 and became a quadriplegic. Rann died earlier this year. Her family could not be reached yesterday for comment.
The total amount of all claims paid by the LIRR more than doubled from $9.7 million in 2005 to $21.1 million in 2006, and then more than doubled to the $52.9 million last year. Between 1996 and 2005, the LIRR averaged $11.9 million per year in money paid for claims.
Metro-North, by comparison, has averaged $20.2 million per year since 1996, the report said.
In a comparison of the impact that such judgments and claims have on the wallets of those riding the nation’s largest commuter rail systems, the LIRR ranked third – although the comparison utilized 2006 figures. Chicago’s system ranked first, with a cost of 27 cents per commuter trip, followed by Metro-North at 25 cents and the LIRR with 19 cents.
In all, the state comptroller’s report said, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has paid a total of $1.1 billion in property and injury claims since 1996.
The estimated future liability of claims filed but not yet paid by the MTA totaled $1.2 billion as of last year, a 38 percent increase since 2001, the report said. The MTA’s current year budget totals about $11 billion.
“Given this trend, the annual cost to settle judgments and claims is likely to remain a significant budget expense,” the report said. “The state comptroller recommends that the MTA step up its efforts to mitigate safety hazards.”
At a hearing in Albany on Wednesday, MTA Chief Elliot Sander said the MTA is projecting a budget shortfall of up to $700 million next year and may have to consider additional fare increases. “Certainly the information that the cost of judgments and claims is on the rise is of tremendous concern at a time when there are scarce resources for the MTA,” DiNapoli said yesterday.