NEW YORK — The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate a Wednesday accident in the New York Subway system that killed a track worker, the agency said in a social media post.
Hiliarian Joseph, 57, was serving as the flagger at a track project near the 34th Street-Herald Square subway station when he was struck by a train about 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, the website Gothamist reports. He was transported to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
New York City Transit President Richard Davey said the MTA was halting all non-essential track work for 24 hours as a result of the accident to “refresh and retrain” MTA employees on track safety. The incident occurred during routine track cleaning.
“We obviously take employee safety seriously and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family,” Davey said at an MTA meeting Wednesday, according to Gothamist. “These are dangerous jobs that we ask our people to do day in and day out.”
Transit Workers Union Local 100 President Richard Davis said in a statement on the union’s website that an investigation into the incident is underway.
“I want to assure my full support to the family and any affected members during this tragic event,” Davis wrote. “Today we grieve the loss of one of our own, and it is crucial that we come together in solidarity.
Joseph had reportedly been with the MTA for 11 months.
TRAINS newswire managed about four or five days (until today) without news of yet another distressing incident. I’m missing your point Charles. The accident was yesterday the coverage today. What story did they delay four or five days?
Sorry you missed my point George. In the week before Thanksgiving, these pages reported a derailment, a collision, injury or death at a rate about one incident per day. Totally unacceptable. For a few days, no bad news. Now we’re back at it again.
R I P sad
TRAINS newswire managed about four or five days (until today) without news of yet another distressing incident.
I remember what a construction safety officer once said in a training class I attended. He said that on his last project (which was a biggie) the worst incident was one worker who injured his thumb. The safety officer continued by saying that that record was one injury too many. The acceptable number of injuries is ZERO.
He was serving as the flagger.
That indicates something distracted him from his task unless he wasn’t clear enough of the train.