Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Subway and Train Accident

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subway accident fire nycAnother subway accident occurred on Monday morning in New York. This time, 30 feet of train track trash caught fire in a tunnel between 145th street and 133rd street in Harlem. Hundreds of panicked passengers were stuck in trains as a smoky blaze developed in the tunnel. Thousands more passengers, most of them on their way to work, were stuck waiting in overcrowded sweltering subway stations.

The fire was reported this morning at 7:18 am by a subway conductor. Trains were stopped and an order was given to the subway conductor to stop the AC to prevent the smoke from being sucked into the cars by the AC system. The service was finally restored at 9:34 am. 9 passengers had to be transported to the hospital for minor injuries related to heat and smoke.

MTA Chairman and CEO Joe Lotha apologized and said the he would increase the effort in Operation Track Sweep. This operation includes 500 employees who are supposed to maintain the tracks clear from garbage.

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subway-derailmentA subway derailed in New York yesterday. According to the FDNY at least 34 people were injured in the accident. 17 of them were transported to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries. A baby and her asthmatic mother as well as other passengers suffered from smoke inhalation. The derailment occurred on the A train between 125th and 135th street shortly before 10:00 am. The train careened off the tracks and scraped the sides of the tunnel wall. In one of the cars a door was ripped open. The track division chairman for the Transport Workers Union, Paul Navarro, said the train “was peeled open like a can opener” According to passengers, the train started to shake violently and the lights started to flicker before the whole train was plunged into darkness and smoke. Passengers started to panic. Some used their shirts as a mask to protect themselves from inhaling the heavy smoke. They remained in darkness and in the smoke for at least 10 minutes until the conductor spoke over the intercom to announce that the train had derailed and that emergency responders were coming through the cars. Some straphangers were evacuated trough the tunnel and others through the train onto the 125th street platform.

According to preliminary investigation by the MTA, the subway derailment was caused by human error. A loose piece of rail was left on the tracks the night before by workers who were doing repair on the A line.

New Yorker’s have been used to getting delayed or stuck in subway cars countless times because of the aging subway  system but they never feared that they were in danger while riding the train. Recently passengers on the F train were stuck in a car without AC and without lights for nearly 3 hours.  However this accident is causing New Yorker’s to wonder how safe it is to ride the subway. Read more in the New York Times 

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A worker was fatally hit by a train in New York City on Saturday morning. The victim’s identity hasn’t been revealed as investigators are still trying to determine the causes of the accident and why the worker was on the tracks at that time. According to the Gothamist, the accident occurred near the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) Queens Village train station. The worker who was a LIRR employee was struck by a Penn Station-bound train coming from Huntigton, Long Island.

Passengers were stuck in the train at for least an hour before being evacuated and transported by bus to their destination. Many of them reported seing blood on the train windows as well as blood, guts and flesh on the tracks.

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train accidents 2016 statistics63% of all train accidents reported by the top 10 US  Commuter Railroads in 2016 occurred in New York City suburbs. The New Jersey Transit logged 21 of them (35%), the Long Island Rail Road 10 (17%) and Metro-North 7 (11%). These numbers were released at the beginning of the month by the  Federal Railroad Administration.

Most human caused train accidents logged by the 10 biggest US Commuter Railroads in 2016  also occurred on The 3 New York Commuter Railroads. Of a total of 33 train accidents caused by human error, 67% occurred in New York suburbs, with 40% of them occurring on the New Jersey Transit.

human caused train accidents 2016 graphThe New Jersey Transit (NJT) which reported 21 train accidents last year represented alone 35% of all the accidents.  The NJT, the third biggest transportation system in the US has been struggling with finance for years. Funds that were supposed to be invested in large development projects were used for day to day operations. As a result, commuters were charged higher fares for overcrowded trains that often suffer delays.

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A train operator was injured in a train accident this morning in West Hempstead, Long Island, NY. A Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train struck a car on a crossing early this morning. The train operator suffered injury. None of the train passengers were injured. The accident happened this morning around 8:00 am not far from the LIRR West Hempstead Station. The service was temporarily  suspended in both directions. Investigators will have to determine why the car was on the crossing.

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Two U.S. officials say the engineer of a commuter train that slammed into a New Jersey station at double the 10 mph speed limit, killing a woman, suffered from undiagnosed sleep apnea. One of the officials says investigators are looking at it as a potential cause. The officials were briefed on the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter. They told the AP on Wednesday that 48-year-old Thomas Gallagher was diagnosed with the condition after the Sept. 29 crash in Hoboken. Read More at Fox News.

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New Jersey Transit trainAfter a train crashed into the Hoboken terminal killing one and injuring more than hundreds, the New Jersey Transit has been under intense scrutiny. Steven Santoro took over the role of executive director of the agency 3 weeks ago. He was appearing Friday at a joint hearing of the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee and the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which together are investigating NJ Transit’s troubled leadership and poor safety record.

During the hearing, Santoro revealed that a federal investigation into the New Jersey Transit found multiple safety violations. According to NorthJersey.com the Federal investigators found that emergency tools and fire extinguishers were lacking on some trains. They also found that employees were using their cellphones when they were not authorized to do so.  Engineers sometimes didn’t blow the horn at grade crossings or didn’t perform brake checks as required. Additionally, locomotives were not proprely secured in train yards.

Santoro admitted that to operate safely the agency would need to hire at least 305 more employees. Additional funding will also be necessary. Santoro explained that the money allocated to construction projects to keep the railroad safe was used to pay for new equipment purchases.

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NYC MTA Subway logoOne MTA worker was seriously injured and another one died in a subway accident in NYC yesterday. The two men were working on the southbound G train track between the Fort Hamilton Parkway and Church Ave. stations in Kensington, Brooklyn. A little after midnight, a train running on the track struck them both. Emergency workers rushed to the location of the accident. One of the workers, a 53 year old man was transported to the hospital in critical condition. He later died from his injuries. The other worker, a 49 year old man, was also transported to the hospital. He was seriously injured but in stable condition. It is not clear why the two men were working on the track when the  subway train was in service. Read more in the NY Daily News

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LIRR_Train33 people suffered personal injury in a train crash in Long Island, NY on Saturday night. A Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train carrying 600 passengers sideswiped a maintenance train and derailed just East of the New Hide Park station in Nassau County. The accident occurred around 9:00 pm. The Huntington Bound passenger train was coming from New York City. After the crash, scared passengers were trapped in the dark for up to an hour until they could be rescued. Among the people injured, 27 were passengers and 7 were workers. The New York Times reported 4 serious injuries.

In a press conference, NY Governor Cuomo told reporters that the accident could have been worse. He also said that the maintenance train violated clearance and intruded into the space of the commuter train. The passenger train sideswiped the maintenance train causing some cars to derail. Yellow paint from the maintenance train was found on the passenger train where the side swipe occurred.

Further investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board  will determine why the maintenance train violated clearance. Regulations related to operation of work equipment are different than regulations related to operation of passenger trains. According to Union sources the maintenance train was operated by a non union LIRR employee.

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OImage result for hoboken train terminalne person died and around 100 were injured in a train crash in Hoboken, just across the Hudson River from New York City. The train entered the terminal at high speed, crashed into the barriers and jumped onto the platform. The accident occurred yesterday morning during rush hour. Thousands of commuters were crowding the station. The impact was so strong that the concourse inside the terminal was torn apart. The ceiling fell onto the locomotive.

34 year old Fabiola Bittar de Kroon had just dropped her 18 month old child at a day care center and was waiting at the terminal to catch a train. During the accident, she was fatally hit by debris. A little more than 100 people were also injured by flying debris. More than 70 of them had to be transported to the hospital to be treated.  The young woman who was killed was a Brazilian lawyer. She had just moved to the United States a year ago to be with her husband, a businessman who had recently been relocated to New York by his company. De Kroon’s husband, Dann,  was in Pennsylvania for his work when the accident happened. He rushed back to the city to pick up his daughter at the day care center. He was clearly distraught. He asked the owner of the center  “How do you tell an 18-month-old that her mother is gone?”

The terminal was closed to the public Today as federal investors are inspecting the site of the train accident. The National Transportation Safety Board is turning its attention to the train engineere, Thomas Gallager, to better understand what he was doing during the crash.  Gallager who was rescued from his crumbled cabin, is fully cooperating. Gallager has been a train engineer for 29 years. According to his neighbor, Gallager wanted to be a train engineer since he was a kid and was enthusiastic about how much he loved his job.

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