(The following story by Steve Ritea appeared on the Newsday website on May 16.)
NEW YORK — An unidentified woman was taken to a Jamaica hospital yesterday after her leg slipped into a gap at the Kew Gardens Long Island Rail Road station early yesterday evening, an LIRR spokesman said.
The accident occurred at about 5:20 p.m. while the 61-year-old woman was exiting the 4:11 p.m. westbound train from Ronkonkoma at the west end of the platform, said LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto.
The woman suffered lacerations when her leg partially fell into the gap. Her injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, he said.
The train was not moving at the time of the incident and continued on to Penn Station, where it arrived 18 minutes late.
Westbound LIRR service was interrupted for about 10 minutes, LIRR officials said.
The incident was the latest in a string of accidents that have led to sweeping changes aimed at narrowing gaps between trains and platforms systemwide.
In April, the LIRR announced it would spend $3.7 million attaching metal plates to the base of its older M-3 electric trains as well as bi-level coaches on its diesel lines, rounding out a plan to reduce gaps systemwide. Officials also said they would begin attaching metal plates at the base of each door on its newer M-7 electric trains in October at a cost of about $2,811 per door.
All told, the LIRR said it will have spent about $46 million on gap remediation – including past work to shift platforms, current work to attach boards to station platforms and future work to install the plates – when all is said and done.
(Staff writers Matthew Chayes and Laura Rivera contributed to this story.)