Text size:

Now, a political platform

BY KARLA SCHUSTER | Newsday Staff Writer

January 20, 2007

State lawmakers say they will convene public hearings on the Long Island Rail Road's plans to fix wide platform gaps, as the new MTA chief admitted the hazard had been ignored for too long.

"I think it's fair to say the LIRR, unfortunately, fell short in addressing the problem of the gap," said Elliot G. Sander, who took over this month as executive director and chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the LIRR's parent agency.

Since a gap-related fatality in August, the LIRR has been moving platforms and tracks, and using other measures such as wooden edge boards, to close troublesome gaps. Railroad officials say such gaps exist at nearly 40 percent of LIRR platforms, according to a recent systemwide survey.

But those efforts didn't silence criticism from many elected leaders, who say Newsday's findings make them doubt the LIRR's will and ability to fix dangerous gaps.

"They [the LIRR and the MTA] take forever to do the obvious," said state Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), who has arranged for the Senate Transportation Committee to hold public hearings on the gap issue on Long Island sometime early next month. "I am very, very disappointed at their lack of response on this issue."

Assemb. Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove) agreed, noting that the railroad has recently closed gaps at many stations using simple techniques that officials admit could have been employed years earlier.

"It's sadly obvious that the LIRR is so massive a bureaucracy that in order to get it to move, it requires constant agitation by those of us in government and in the public," Lavine said. "The tragic part ... that it doesn't take that much to at least provide more public safety. It's not like cracking the atom."

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Jamaica Estates) had even harsher words for the railroad.

"Their deliberate refusal to address a dangerous condition borders on criminal," Ackerman said Friday. "We trust them to put the public safety first. They did not."

Acting LIRR President Ray Kenny said the railroad is "deeply involved" in finding ways to protect riders from wide platform gaps. "It is an issue of primary importance because it does involve customer safety."

New York City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) said fixing gaps should be part of the LIRR's basic mission.

"Requiring people to step over a 15-inch gap today is just not an acceptable standard any longer," said Liu, who is chairman of the council's transportation committee. "It's really an LIRR obligation to ensure that gaps get fixed."

The death of Natalie Smead, 18, was the LIRR's first gap-related fatality. A preliminary state investigation found that Smead had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit for driving when she fell through an 8-inch gap at Woodside station.

The accident sparked several state and federal probes into gap safety. A state investigation of gaps on the LIRR and Metro-North Railroad is expected to conclude this spring and likely will include recommendations to both railroads. Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation of Smead's death is still pending, as is a Federal Railroad Administration task force study of the gap issue.

Besides a provision of the Americans With Disabilities Act that federal rail officials have described as unenforceable, there are no state or federal laws mandating a maximum platform gap.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for stronger federal regulations on gap safety.

"The LIRR's failure to act, despite knowledge of hundreds of injuries to its riders, is simply inexcusable," Schumer said. "We need stronger federal regulations across the board and more aggressive oversight to ensure that a senseless tragedy will not happen again."