The MTA will carry out its $100 million pilot project to equip three New York subway stations with platform gates to prevent passengers from falling or being pushed onto the tracks.
The Big Apple is currently finishing major designs for the platform barriers and will begin construction in the coming months, MTA spokeswoman Joana Flores said.
On May 21, a subject identified as Kamal Semrade, 39, was arrested for allegedly throwing 35-year-old Emine Ozsoy onto the rails at the Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street station, rendering her unable to walk.
“We want to see the book thrown at this guy, whoever he is,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber said at an MTA board meeting. “Whatever their motivation, we need them to know that these types of people will suffer the maximum consequences if they do something like this.”
He also said that the process of creating and installing the screens was underway.
The project had been announced in February 2022 after passenger Michelle Go was killed by a homeless man who pushed her in front of an approaching train on January 15, 2022 at the Times Square-42nd Street station, which it is one of the stations scheduled to be equipped with the platform.
The other two stations are Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue Station and 3rd Avenue Station.
For his part, the director of policy and communications for Riders Alliance, Danny Pearltein, indicated that the protective barriers could have prevented deaths, but they were far from being a solution, reported the New York Post.
“While the screen doors on the platform could have prevented the murder [de Go] the way it happened, it happened on the same subway platform where there were police officers,” Pearlstein said.
“There are only certain types of things that platform screens can solve,” he added. “They are not a panacea. They are not a blanket solution to the subway intersection crisis.”
Recently, similar protective doors have started to be used in metro stations around the world, including Paris, Tokyo, Barcelona, São Paulo and Hong Kong.
At least 25 people were pushed onto the subway tracks in 2022, an increase from 21 citizens in 2021.
Three people had been thrown onto the tracks this year as of May 21, according to the New York Police Department, which is a decrease from nine such events that happened in the first five months of last year.
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