(The following story by Alfonso A. Castillo appeared on the Newsday website on March 20, 2009.)
NEW YORK — Natalie Smead’s “alcohol-impaired condition” and disregard of a conductor’s instruction contributed to the death of the Minnesota teen, who was hit by a train after falling into the gap between a Long Island Rail Road car and a station platform, a federal agency said in a report released yesterday.
The eight-page accident brief by the National Transportation Safety Board followed a 2 1/2-year investigation into Smead’s Aug. 5, 2006, death.
Smead, 18, who was visiting New York City from Northfield, Minn., was “drinking on the train” with friends on their way to a concert at Randalls Island, according to the report.
As she left the train at Woodside, Smead, who weighed just 110 pounds, fell through a nearly 8-inch gap onto the ground. She crawled away onto nearby tracks, where another train hit and killed her.
The circumstances that led to her death, the NTSB report says, included Smead “falling through a gap between the rail car and platform while attempting to disembark the train, not following instructions from the train conductor to remain still until help arrived, and then crawling under the platform and into the path of a moving train on the opposite side of the platform.”
The report, citing Smead’s blood-alcohol level of .23 percent, also said her impaired state contributed to the accident.
Garden City attorney Bob Sullivan, who represents Smead’s family, called the safety board’s report “meaningless.”
He said NTSB investigators neglected to consider as a contributing factor in Smead’s death the actions of the train’s crew, who he said were “rushing the train.”
The doors closed on Smead as she was exiting the train. Smead fell into the gap after the doors reopened.
“If she doesn’t get the doors closed on her and then falls into the gap, none of this ever happens,” Sullivan said. “How do you leave that out of the probable cause? … She didn’t walk into the gap.”
The NTSB did acknowledge elsewhere in its report that the doors began to close on Smead and that “when the conductor reopened the doors, [Smead] lost her balance and fell forward into the gap and onto the ground beneath the platform.”
The report said that the size of the gap at Woodside at the time was “within tolerances expected.”
The NTSB report did not issue any recommendations to the LIRR. It cited a report by the New York State Public Transportation Safety Board that concluded the LIRR’s response to the accident was “immediate and thorough.”
In a statement released yesterday, LIRR officials said the agency “again extends its heartfelt condolences to the family of Natalie Smead. Nothing we say or do will bring her back. However, the LIRR has taken concrete steps to narrow the width of the gap systemwide.”
The LIRR’s ongoing efforts to shrink the gaps began after a Newsday investigation, spurred by Smead’s death, found there were more than 800 gap accidents from 1995 to early 2007.