(Newsday circulated the following article by Jennifer Maloney on November 16.)
NEW YORK — In its latest effort to prevent gap falls, the Long Island Rail Road has assigned platform conductors to supervise the morning rush hour at five stations — expanding a practice that for years existed only at the dangerously curved Syosset station.
Platform conductors equipped with radios have begun patrolling at Mineola, Ronkonkoma, Hicksville and Freeport stations as well as Penn Station’s Track 17. The new program was launched last Friday in Mineola and Ronkonkoma and was extended to the other three stations on Wednesday.
“Acting President Ray Kenny reached out to the [United Transportation Union] regarding gap concerns,” said LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan. “And in the course of their discussion, UTU general chairman Anthony Simon proposed … expanding the platform conductor assignment in a pilot program.”
The five new stations were selected because they had a high volume of customer traffic, a high number of gap accidents or particularly wide gaps, McGowan said.
The program could be expanded to include evening rush hour or other stations, railroad and union officials said.On Aug. 5, Natalie Smead, of Northfield, Minn., died after she fell into a gap at Woodside station, crawled under the concrete platform and was struck by a train on the other side.
Simon said that radios would enable the conductors to stop trains quickly in the event of a gap fall. “I don’t know if my guys being there can prevent someone from falling into a gap — hopefully they can — but God forbid somebody does slip and fall down the gap, we can do a lot by having guys there who can respond immediately and make sure people don’t get seriously hurt,” Simon said.
Since Smead’s death, the railroad — which has gaps as wide as 15 inches at some stations — has implemented several gap solutions, including moving tracks closer to platforms, shifting platforms closer to tracks and tacking wooden edge boards onto the sides of platforms. LIRR, state and federal officials also are investigating Smead’s death and the gap issue.
Syosset’s platform conductor, who has supervised the morning rush hour there for several years, previously used hand signals to communicate with other railroad personnel — a standard LIRR practice. That conductor now will use a radio, McGowan said.
A Newsday review of LIRR and court records of customer accidents from Jan. 1, 2004, to July 31 of this year revealed four gap falls at Freeport, six at Hicksville, eight at Mineola, 13 at Ronkonkoma and 17 at the several tracks the LIRR uses at Penn Station.
LIRR and MTA officials said they could not provide measurements of gaps at those or other stations because National Transportation Safety Board investigators had instructed them not to.
Federal investigators, in cooperation with the LIRR, so far have measured gaps at about 85 stations, said NTSB spokesman Paul Schlamm.
The federal investigation, which began in August, could take up to a year, he said.
Meanwhile, the state Public Transportation Safety Board on Monday is expected to issue findings from its investigation into Smead’s death.
State investigators have measured gaps at about half the LIRR’s 125 stations, said state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jennifer Nelson.