(Newsday posted the following article by Susana Enriquez on its website on November 4.)
NEW YORK — A 69-year-old woman was injured Friday when she fell into a gap while getting off a Long Island Rail Road train at the New Hyde Park station during rush hour, officials said.
The unidentified woman – the latest LIRR passenger hurt in a gap fall – was leaving the eastbound train about 6:08 p.m. when she was “accidentally jostled” by other passengers and fell onto the platform, said LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan.
As she tried to get up, she fell into the gap between the platform and the train, which is about 4 feet deep, McGowan said.
After emergency workers lifted her onto the platform, the woman indicated she was feeling pain in her hip area, McGowan said. She was taken to Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola.
Her injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, McGowan said.
In New Hyde Park, the gap is as much as 12 inches, according to a Newsday measurement taken Friday night. The woman who fell is the third to fall through a gap at the station this year.
Larry Seested, who works in one of the buildings near the train station, said he was on a break when he noticed the commotion.
“I’m not personally all that concerned, although there is a gap,” said Seested, who takes the train from Rockaway twice a day. “It’s not physically threatening to me, but I can understand how somebody, especially if they’re small, could trip over it. But I’m no more threatened by it than a flight of stairs.”
The LIRR has undergone scrutiny since Natalie Smead, a teenager from Minnesota, was struck and killed by a train in August after she fell through a gap at the Woodside station.
After Smead’s death, a Newsday investigation found gaps as wide as 15 inches – twice the railroad’s standard.
Last month, Christina Dadamo, 53, of New Hyde Park, fell when her leg slipped into a gap at the New Hyde Park station. She sustained scrapes and bruises.
In June, Irene McDonald, 73, of Greenlawn, fell through a gap at New Hyde Park and said she underwent skin graft surgery on her leg because of the injuries.
The agency, state and federal officials are investigating the LIRR’s wide gaps and in the meantime have waged a campaign to warn riders about them.