What To Do If You Fall In The Subway Tracks

Because sometimes these things happen (Photograph by John Ross, courtesy of the Daily News)

In the wake of this week's awful and well-documented fatal subway shoving many New Yorkers have been wondering what, exactly, they should do if they suddenly were to find themselves lying in the subway tracks. Because not every conductor can stop in time. And sadly, there is no one answer.

Because every station is different the MTA refrains from giving any tips on what to do if you fall off the platform. "What we do say officially is that customers should stand well back from the edge of the platform when waiting for the train," a spokesman tells us. "Also, if a customer drops something onto the tracks they should contact a transit employee who will call personnel to retrieve the item."

And the MTA's advice is sound. But also doesn't really help. Luckily, earlier this year an MTA conductor offered his take on the eternal question during a Reddit AMA. His response?

If, god forbid, I fall onto the tracks or someone I am willing to risk my life for falls into the tracks and is knocked out - and a train is coming (lets say 30sec away) - what should I do? Are those pits between the rails by the platforms made for people to hide in in a worst case scenario?

The best thing you can do is run as far down the platform as you can (in the opposite direction from where the train enters the station) and wave your arms frantically to get the train operator and passenger's attention. Believe me, the passengers WILL be doing the exact same thing, as nobody wants to see you get run over and their train get delayed.

If you can get to the far end of the platform, it gives the train more room to stop, and there is a ladder at the end of each platform where you can climb back up -- do NOT try to climb up from where you are. So many people have been killed trying to jump back up rather than getting away from the entrance end of the station.

Do NOT trust the pits between the tracks --- they are often right next to the third rail which can be just as dangerous (and note that the wooden planks are not designed to hold a human's weight - they are there to protect the energized rail from drips and weather) and the train operator is less likely to see you if you're in there. And don't duck under the train, because most stations do not have enough clearance for the average human.

And do NOT jump down onto the tracks to try to save someone else. The best thing you can do is run on the platform towards the tunnel where the train enters so you can get the operator's attention sooner. Waving your arms over the tracks will tell the operator to stop immediately.

So really the best thing you can do? Try and stay well clear of the edge of the platform until your train is in the station. But if you do end up in the tracks, getting as far from where the train enters on is a good start.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in News on December 5, 2012 1:45 PM

Comments [rss]

TheKingJAK

One thing to add: Some subway system platforms have an overhang that you can successfully duck under and still survive the passing train. This is always a last ditch option. Las Vegas-McCarran Airport has platform length glass walls with shut doors stretching from floor to ceiling, and they only open when the train's doors do so as well. We spend money on so much garbage in this country and others, including absurd enforcement of meaningless laws, so how about actually protecting our citizens for once? Make the glass bulletproof to boot. Aside from protecting people, it'll also protect animals as well.

GOP_NYC

This is all well and good for physically fit, stone-cold sober 20-somethings who can run the 100 in under 12 seconds. But I doon't usually see people like that getting turned into cherry pie by the MTA.

So, for those of you who are drunks, or old, or disabled, and if the train is barreling into the station (as it was in the infamous post photo), your best bet is to slide under the platform space or (if there are none) to go into those little cubby holes against the wall on the other side of the third rail and suck in your gut.

weissadam

i'm curious how accurate the train operators are with respect to stopping the train at exactly the right place... if they're good, it seems that half height barriers could be installed with punchouts for the doors. it wouldn't make the situation foolproof, but it would make it much, much harder to fall into the tracks.

AnotherSuspect

There's so many design flaws in the construction of so many stations...for instance, the NRQ connection at Union Square. If you're coming up from the L connection, you have pretty much no choice but to "walk the tightrope" next to the tracks during rush hour to get across the platform. And with so many inconsiderate and oblivious people who could move at a moment's notice and never seem to pay attention to anything going on around them, it's only a matter of time before someone else gets nudged on the tracks...freaks me the fuck out.

Henrietta Jones

One nitpick re: "Because not every conductor can stop in time." Actually you mean train operators (or motormen) as they are the ones who drive the trains. Conductors are the people who open and close subway doors, and they're not going to see some stray person on the tracks in front of the train because they are at the middle of the train.

Tom

In the future we should make all the top MTA managers and chairman agree to ride the train to and from work everyday throughout their tenure before they get their job appointments

canofpeas

Why not just get the sick nut jobs off the street who push people on the tracks? It would be a lot cheaper than installing screens.

AmericanDreamerr

Back in the 1960's and 1970's a merry band of tan rhesus
monkeys lived in the subway tunnels stretching from Chambers Street to Rector Street along the Number 1, 2 and 3 subway lines.

It was a complete mystery how the rhesus monkeys got there
but a New York Times article on the subject speculated that they escaped from a medical laboratory at Columbia University Medical School at 168th Street and Broadway and worked there way down the subway tunnel before settling in the stretch from Chambers to Rector Streets.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s harried subway riders were
thrilled by the opportunity to see the playful rhesus monkeys scampering along the tracks picking at the detritus left behind by humans on the tracks to fill their hungry tummies. My mother always
dropped a few bananas and other dried fruit at the far end of the track on her way to work each morning. By the time she returned each evening after a long day at the office her offering to our
simian friends was always gone.

A team of zoologists from Columbia University who studied
the monkeys over a five year period estimated that there were between thirty and sixty monkeys in total as of 1968 as the band of monkeys reached their apex at that time.

My mother has a picture of me as a child posing with one
monkey at the Franklin Street station eating a banana as I petted its beautiful reddish tan coat. They always disappeared as quick as lightening when a subway entered the station.

If you google this subject you can dig up some of the old
New York Times articles on these mischievious scamps.

This merry band of mischief makers was believed to
have died out by around 1975 although sometimes when I'm waiting for a subway at Franklin Street I believe I sometimes hear the screech of a rhesus monkey from deep within the subway tunnel. I do
believe that at least a few of them still live down there.

AmericanDreamerr

I was thinking that the MTA should post signs advising people that there is a ladder at the end of each platform that people can climb up if they fall into the tracks.

But then I realized that may encourage people to jump into the tracks after fallen smartphones and other valuables on the premise that they can just walk to the end of the platform to climb up the ladder. Because people are stupid and need to be saved from themselves.

edgie

why is it anytime we get stories like this, everyone gets outraged and when someone asks if there are any options to enhance safety, there's always the same small group of commenters who are always like "WHAT THAT'S SO STUPID IT'LL NEVER WORK FUCK YOU IT COSTS TOO MUCH NO GOVERNMENT" but then never offer better solutions..

and continue to rage about subway accidents/murders.

pendejito

So edgie, what is YOUR soultion then?

edgie

let me pee in your butt

Peanut_Butter

Let's all hop on the SOULTRAIN! ahahahahahhahah

Peanut_Butter

I disagree. I use punctuation between my ranting sentences.

edgie

i have commas all up in that shit there, you blind ass.

L2R

Viva

Hopefully none of us will have to actually use this information. But it's good to know just in case. There are crazies out there that like to push, shove, throw, and trip people off the subway platform. There are accidents too. :(

But the video below highlights an important point. Some gnarly train incidents are avoidable. So be careful. P.S. The video is cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?f...