(Newsday posted the following article by Jennifer Maloney on its website on March 28.)
NEW YORK — The state Public Transportation Safety Board on April 18 is expected to release the findings of its study on platform gaps on the Long Island and Metro-North railroads.
State and federal officials began investigating the gap issue after the August death of a Minnesota teenager and a Newsday survey that found gaps as wide as 15 inches at some LIRR stations.
On Nov. 20, the state board issued the first of two reports on the issue — an investigation into the death of Natalie Smead, 18, who slipped through a gap at the Woodside station. The board found that Smead likely was responsible for her own death because she was drunk and crawled in front of an oncoming train after falling into the gap.
The second state report, a broader study of platform gaps on both of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s commuter railroads, will be presented at a board meeting in Albany on April 18, said state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jennifer Nelson.
A five-month Newsday investigation found the LIRR, which had about 900 gap incidents in the past 11 years, had known for more than three decades that gaps posed a hazard. At a state Senate hearing in February, the LIRR acknowledged it had gaps exceeding 10 inches on 32 platforms at 22 stations; Metro-North said it had similar gaps on 26 platforms at 17 stations.