Update on Personal Injuries from New York Gap-Related Train Accidents
The Injury Blog has detailed the concern involving personal injuries from New York gap-related train accidents in the past, and here’s the latest update on the issue. A Newsday story from Tuesday detailed that Long Island Rail Road has experienced a nearly 67 percent increase in reported customer accidents in the first quarter of this year as compared to the same period for 2006. Specifically, the railroad logged 135 total customer accidents in January through March; 39 of those incidents involved gap-related incidents. The number of reported gap-related incidents for the first quarter tripled as compared to last year when there were just 12 such reported incidents.
An LIRR spokesman said in the story that this spike in reported accidents, especially gap-related incidents, may be an offspring of increased public awareness concerning the gap issue. LIRR has been heavily criticized for failing to take proper action in relation to injuries that were occurring in the gaps between their loading platforms and trains. Newsday investigated the problem after the gap-related death of a Minnesota teen last summer, and some of the findings can be seen here.
Of further interest earlier this week, the LIRR/Long Island Bus Committee approved a $427,000 contract to analyze gap measurements at more than 225 platforms. We’ll keep you updated on any more developments with this analysis and the New York gap issue.