Four die in New York subway accidents within 24 hours

Thousands of people use the subway in New York on a daily basis. For most, their travel ends with them safely walking up the stairs from the bowels of the city to their final destination. Most people enter and exit the subway without even thinking twice about their safety after traveling through one of the nation’s largest transit systems has become second nature.

For some, however their lives are changed when they walk below the streets. Within a single 24-hour span of time, four people lost their lives in a mass transit accident this past weekend. The four deaths all occurred on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012.

The first accident occurred sometime before 8:25 in the morning when what remained of the young man after being hit by a train was found on the tracks. The police were able to identify the young man after finding a wallet, his watch and the victim’s cellphone. The second death appears to have occurred when a man fell down the city stairways just above the subway platform. It is unclear what caused the man to lose balance and fall down the stairway.

The third fatality happened just prior to 4 p.m. One of the train operators on shift for the day noticed that what appeared to be a body was lying on the tracks. When police were called to the scene, it appeared as though the man was hit by several trains before any operator noticed his presence.

Just after 8 in the evening the police were called to the scene of the fourth fatality. A train operator struck a man attempting to climb up onto the platform. The operator reported attempting to apply the brakes, but that she could not do so in time. All four fatalities remain under investigation at the time as authorities attempt to determine what caused each man to come into harm’s way.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, “Subway Sees Four Deaths in One Day,” Pervaiz Shallwani and Heather Haddon, Jan. 23, 2012