WASHINGTON —The National Transportation Safety Board plans to focus on New York City Transit’s internal oversight and worker protection procedures, and the external oversight provided by the Federal Transit Administration and the New York Department of Transportation, as it continues its investigation into a fatal accident involving a track worker on Nov. 29, according to the NTSB’s preliminary report released Wednesday, Dec. 20.
The preliminary report records basic details of the incident and is subject to change.
The incident occurred about 12:13 a.m. when a northbound D Line train struck an employee working as a flagger with a crew cleaning debris near the 34th Street-Herald Square station in Manhattan, killing a worker who had been with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for less than a year [see “NTSB to investigate death …,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 30, 2023].
According to the narrative in the NTSB report, the train involved had no event recorders or cameras. It approached the 12-person track crew, who had set up portable flashing lights and a portable trip block, and track crew, and stopped short of a red light held by the flagger, who was positioned between the yellow lights and the workers. The work-crew foreman cleared the crew from the track, and signaled the flagger to let the train pass; the flagger extinguished his red light, removed the trip block, and signaled for the train to proceed. As the train entered the work zone; it experienced an emergency brake application; when the operator exited the train to determine the cause, he found the flagger under the train and unresponsive. He was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead.
So what did the flagger do after he gave the signal for the train to proceed? Try to move to a “better” position as the train approached? Or was he actually too close to the track when he signalled without realizing the actual width needed for the train to pass. Looks like tight space from the photo.