Federal effort to bridge gap

A newly formed federal railroad safety task force is

studying the gap issue after recent reports of a death and serious injuries

attributed to the Long Island Rail Road's platform gaps.

At its inaugural meeting in September, the Passenger Safety Working Group[

CORRECTION: The Federal Railroad Administration task force studying the issue

of platform gaps is called the General Passenger Safety Task Force. A Newsday

story incorrectly named the task force in a story yesterday about the group's

preliminary findings. PG. A17 ALL 10/6/06] - part of the Federal Railroad

Administration's Railroad Safety Advisory Committee - reviewed data

highlighting the severity of gap problems across the country. The findings show

that deaths and serious injuries caused by slips, trips or falls on platforms

are on the rise. And while there is no federal standard for the width of gaps,

the task force found railroads with internal standards that allow gaps as wide

as 13 inches.

The task force's probe into gaps is not the first. Federal and state

officials began investigating LIRR's platform gaps in August after the

gap-related death of Natalie Smead, 18, and a Newsday investigation that found

gaps as wide as 15 inches - twice the railroad's standard. In addition to the

LIRR's internal gap survey, the National Transportation Safety Board and the

state Public Transportation Safety Board are investigating the gap issue and

Smead's death.

In the most recent LIRR gap incident, Christina Dadamo, 53, of New Hyde

Park, fell when her left leg slipped into the gap as she was exiting a

Huntington-bound train Tuesday afternoon at New Hyde Park station. She suffered

scrapes and bruises.

In response to LIRR gap incidents highlighted in the media, the Railroad

Safety Advisory Committee has made the issue of boarding and exiting trains a

top priority for its newly formed Passenger Safety Working Group, which met for

the first time last month. The LIRR has had a total of 209 gap-related

incidents since 2002.

The task force, which the committee voted to create in 2003 but was not

activated until this year, has had the ingress-egress issue on its agenda for

some time, but moved it to the top "because of recent events on Long Island

Rail Road," said Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Steve Kulm.

The task force will study the gap issue for several months before

presenting its recommendations, he said. In the past, the advisory committee

has helped create federal regulations on train crashworthiness and emergency

preparedness.

According to a presentation at the task force's first meeting, a survey of

six commuter railroads found that the internal railroad standards for gaps

ranged from 4 inches to 13 inches. One railroad had no standard. Officials

would not name the six railroads, calling the research preliminary. They are,

however, among about 20 railroads across the country regulated by the Federal

Railroad Administration.

Meanwhile, LIRR's standard is 7 to 8 inches, and Metro-North's is 5,

according to local railroad officials.

Attempting to compile national gap incident figures for freight and

passenger railroads, the task force researched numbers of deaths and serious

injuries of non-employees caused by slips, trips or falls on platforms. Those

incidents are on the rise, according to the presentation: 13 in 2002, 21 in

2003, 28 in 2004 and 40 in 2005.