(The following article by Andrew Strickler was posted on the Newsday website on August 22.)
NEW YORK — State officials are expected to announce today that a comprehensive review of gaps between trains and platforms will be conducted at stations on both the Long Island Rail Road and the Metro-North Rail Road.
The expected announcement by Sens. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and Nicholas Spano (R-Yonkers), along with New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Tom Madison and transit officials, comes just days after LIRR officials announced that they would conduct their own census of gap sizes at all 124 LIRR stations.
LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan said that survey began yesterday and is not expected to be completed until the end of the year. McGowan was unaware yesterday of the state’s involvement or if the wider survey of the LIRR and Metro-North would subsume the previously announced survey. “We’re doing our own internal review,” McGowan said.
Newsday reported Wednesday that the LIRR has never completed a survey of the gaps despite at least 115 related injuries in 2004 and 2005.
Today’s announcement is expected to occur at the Woodside Station where Natalie Smead was killed Aug. 5. Investigators say she fell into the gap between a train and the platform, crawled beneath the platform and was hit by a passing train on the other side.