Since 1995, the <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> has logged nearly 900 gap incidents at stations from Penn to <a href="/topics/Bridgehampton">Bridgehampton</a>, according to records obtained and analyzed by Newsday.The falls have involved toddlers and senior citizens, regular commuters and occasional riders, the disabled and the able-bodied. During that period, gap falls have comprised an increasing percentage of rider accidents.

News

ny-gap-sg

Four years into a project to shrink dangerous gaps between trains and station platforms, the <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> still has plenty of work to do that "will take us into next year," LIRR President <a href="/topics/Helena_Williams">Helena Williams</a> said .Wednesday. 
When they began their "gap remediation" project in 2007, LIRR officials said they expected it would take about two years to finish. By 2008, the estimated completion was pushed back to 2012, and that remains the target, Williams said. 
The biggest challenge? The railroad is still seeking the right design for a gap-reducing plate for its fleet of double-decker trains. 
"The plan has had some adjustments," said Williams, who will update <a href="/topics/Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a> board members on the project at a Manhattan meeting Thursday. "These things take what they take. They have to be done the right way. They have to be done safely. They have to be done in a way that works." 
Tragic beginning 
The LIRR began the project after a Newsday investigation that found that about 38 percent of station platforms had dangerous gaps, <a href="/topics/Syosset%2C_NY">Syosset</a>'s as wide as 15 inches. Newsday also found that since 1995, the LIRR had logged 882 gap incidents. 
The Newsday investigation stemmed from the August 2006 death of Natalie Smead, 18, of Northfield, Minn., who was killed after falling through a nearly 8-inch gap coming out of a train, crawling under a platform and being struck by another train. 
The LIRR's goal has been to reduce gaps by 3 inches to an acceptable average of&nbsp;5 inches. 
The LIRR has already installed steel "threshold plates" at the doors of all its electric cars -- more than 80 percent of its fleet. But it is yet to find a successful design for the doors of its 134 bi-level diesel/electric coaches. 
A key issue is coming up with a plate that can be heated by the cars' wiring system so riders don't slip on ice. Williams said the LIRR has been tackling the problem "for some months" and is now testing a prototype plate. 
Also, the LIRR has not completed installation of "edgeboards" at platforms at more than a quarter of its 122 stations. Williams said she expects that work to be finished by the end of this year. 
The railroad gave the worst platforms priority, and in some cases the solutions have been less than perfect, she acknowledged. An example is <a href="/topics/Syosset%2C_NY">Syosset</a>, where the curved platform limits the ability to close the gap. It's still as wide as 10 inches. 
An LIRR gap team continues to address the unique issues at individual station platforms, some of which have to be raised or lowered, Williams said. 
One factor setting back progress was harsh weather this past winter, which diverted resources from the project. 
The LIRR spent $31 million through 2010 on the project, and plans to spend another $6 million through next year. 
&nbsp; 
Incidents on decline 
Gap-related incidents have steadily declined since the LIRR began the project in 2007, when there were 175 incidents. In 2010, there were 62 -- a drop of more than two-thirds. 
"The accident numbers show that we're making good progress, and that's what I'm satisfied with," Williams said. 
The progress is not good enough for Judith Cohen, 73, of <a href="/topics/Commack%2C_NY">Commack</a>, who suffered multiple fractures after slipping in the gap at <a href="/topics/Huntington_Station%2C_NY">Huntington Station</a> in 2006. In January, Cohen took an LIRR train for the first time since her accident. "I did notice that they have made improvements, but it still seems to me that 62 accidents in 2010 is way too many," said Cohen, awarded $247,500 by a Manhattan jury last year in a suit against the LIRR. "I don't know why it took them so long." 
Long after the final threshold plate is installed, Williams said the LIRR's efforts to prevent gap accidents will continue. She said a critical component of the plan is getting the message to customers to "be train smart" when getting on and off. 
"When I'm on a train, if I hear it once, I hear it 20 times: 'Watch the gap,' " <a href="/topics/MTA">MTA</a> board member Mitchell Pally of <a href="/topics/Stony_Brook%2C_NY">Stony Brook</a> said: "Is it finished? Obviously not yet. But I think they've made really significant progress within a reasonable period of time." 
&nbsp; 
&nbsp;Gap Fixes 
Threshold plates 
What they do:&nbsp;One- or 2-inch steel step plates that extend from train doors to platforms to help bridge the gaps. 
Done:&nbsp;All of the LIRR's 836 M7 and 160 M3 model electric cars 
Left to do:&nbsp;All 134 of the LIRR's bi-level C3 model coaches 
 Platform fixes 
What they do:&nbsp;One-inch boards installed on platform edges to help close gaps; height adjustments also made where necessary. 
Done:&nbsp;Installation of edgeboards on 164 platform edges at 100 passenger stations. 
Left to do:&nbsp;Installation of edgeboards on 58 platform edges at 24 passenger stations. 
Correction:&nbsp;An earlier version of this story gave a wrong figure for an acceptable gap average. 
&nbsp;

Long Island

Transportation

LIGAP21

Still plenty to do on LIRR gap project

Accidents involving the gap between <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> station platforms and its train doors fell 56 percent in 2009, compared with 2007, LIRR president <a href="/topics/Helena_Williams">Helena Williams</a> said Monday.
The reduction follows a broad campaign to reduce the gaps and raise awareness of their dangers following the August 2006 death of Natalie Smead, 18, of <a href="/topics/Minnesota">Minnesota</a>, who was killed by an LIRR train in Woodside after falling through a gap.
After rising to 175 in 2007, gap accidents fell to 119 in 2008 and 77 in 2009, Williams said Monday at the Long Island Committee meeting of the <a href="/topics/Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a>. 
"We think that our efforts are contributing to those reductions," Williams said.
A five-month Newsday investigation, published in January 2007, reported that about 38 percent of 262 LIRR platforms had problem gaps and that railroad officials knew they were dangerous for decades but did little to fix the problems. It also found that, since 1995, the LIRR had logged nearly 900 gap incidents from Penn to Bridgehampton stations.
In a memo to the LIRR <a href="/topics/MTA">MTA</a> board committee, Williams said the railroad has reduced gaps by 1 inch on more than 90,000 feet of platforms with wooden edge board since 2008. 
The gap has further been reduced by adding 2-inch metal plates to the base of nearly every train car door and by adjusting platform height at nine stations in 2009, the memo stated.
More than $20 million has been spent to reduce gaps, an LIRR spokesman said.
Gaps of 10 inches or more still exist in 13 train door locations - nine at Flatbush Avenue station, three at Penn Station Track 19 and one at Long Beach, the memo stated. 
With Pervaiz Shallwani

LIGAP23

LIRR's Williams: Gap accidents reduced in half

LIRR

A Long Island Rail Road passenger injured her right knee when she fell into the gap between the platform and an eastbound train at the Merrick station Saturday afternoon, a Long Island Rail Road spokesman said.
"My leg hurts! My leg hurts!" the woman cried after falling, said a conductor who said he helped her out of the gap. The conductor would not give his name because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Medics took the injured woman to <a href="/topics/Nassau_University_Medical_Center">Nassau University Medical Center</a> in <a href="/topics/East_Meadow%2C_NY">East Meadow</a> about 4 p.m., LIRR spokesman Stanley Davis said.
"She fell into the gap up to her knee," Davis said.
The woman was treated for a bruised right knee, Davis said. Her name was not released.
Service on the train, the 3:10 p.m. from Penn Station due to arrive in <a href="/topics/Babylon%2C_NY">Babylon</a> at 4:24 p.m., was relatively unaffected.
The conductor who helped the woman said she fell because she had gotten off the train, then tried to get back on quickly.
The woman began to cry after she fell, said the conductor.
"I just lifted her out of the gap," he said.
The woman told officials she was coming from <a href="/topics/Rockville_Centre%2C_NY">Rockville Centre</a>.
"She was upset, obviously," the conductor said. "It's just one of those things."
A Newsday investigation in 2007 revealed that since 1995 the LIRR logged more than 800 gap incidents at stations from Penn Station to <a href="/topics/Bridgehampton%2C_NY">Bridgehampton</a>. At that time, the gap at the Merrick station was measured to be about 9 inches.
Since then, the platform has been modified, with extensions added to lessen the gap. The width of the gap at the spot where the woman fell Saturday was not immediately known.

Nassau

Woman hurt in gap fall at Merrick LIRR station

ligap20

A man was injured Tuesday when he fell into a gap between a <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> train and the station platform at Syosset, LIRR officials said. 
 At 1:18 p.m., the passenger, believed to be in his 70s, was getting off a westbound train that had originated in Huntington when he fell into the gap and down to the track, LIRR spokesman Joe Calderone said. The passenger's identity was not released. 
 PHOTOS: <a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/long-island-rail-road-gap-victims-1.211294">Click here to see photos of LIRR gap victims</a> 
 LIRR officials cut off the electricity to the third rail and held the train at the station until the man was safely brought up onto the platform, Calderone said. 
 The man suffered a cut to his head and complained of <a href="/topics//Back_Pain">back pain</a>. He was taken by ambulance to Syosset Hospital, where he was being treated. 
 "We're doing a full review of the incident," Calderone said. 
 The dangers posed by the gaps on the LIRR system first gained attention after the 2006 death of a visiting <a href="/topics/Minnesota">Minnesota</a> teenager, Natalie Smead, who fell into a gap at the Woodside, Queens, station and was struck by a train. 
 Smead's death sparked a Newsday investigation that found there had been more than 800 gap accidents from 1995 to early 2007. 
 Since the investigation, the LIRR has spent $27 million to shrink gaps between trains and platforms, including at Syosset, where the gap was among the widest in the LIRR system. 
 The number of reported gap incidents has steadily fallen since the LIRR began those efforts. There were 175 total incidents in 2007, 119 in 2008 and 78 in 2009, the railroad said. 
 Calderone said that $1.6 million was spent at Syosset, where the station platform was shifted to shrink the gap, platform edge lighting was improved, precautionary signs were put up, and boards were installed along the edges of the platform. 
 Most of the LIRR's fleet have been fitted with 2-inch metal bridge plates at all the doors. The train involved in Tuesday's incident had been fitted with bridge plates. 
 Calderone said the gap at Syosset where the man fell is 9.1 inches - within the LIRR's acceptable standard of 10 inches for the station. 
 <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a> legislator and former presiding officer Judy Jacobs (D-<a href="/topics//Woodbury,_NY">Woodbury</a>) contacted Newsday after learning of Tuesday's incident, which she called "unacceptable." 
 Jacobs said that the LIRR should invest in technology that would allow a "movable platform" to extend and retract from trains at stations. 
 "Anything short of this, including the improvements which have been made, will not eliminate these type of accidents," Jacobs said. 
 PHOTOS: <a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/long-island-rail-road-gap-victims-1.211294">Click here to see photos of LIRR gap victims</a> 
 MORE: <a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/transportation/lirr/investigating-the-gap-1.1269849">Click here to read stories from Newsday's "Investigating the Gap" series</a>

LIGAP03

Man injured falling into gap at Syosset LIRR station

Syosset gap

Accidents on the <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> involving gaps between trains and station platforms were down 33 percent in 2008 as compared to 2007, LIRR officials said Wednesday. The announcement came as LIRR president <a href="/topics/Helena_Williams">Helena Williams</a> updated the <a href="/topics/MTA">MTA</a>'s <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a> Committee on the progress made so far in the rail road's ongoing efforts to repair the dangerous gaps. "We still have a long way to go in terms of educating the public," Williams said. "We're very proud at the reduction. We'd like to bring that down some more." Williams also acknowledged that the reduction in accidents in 2008 followed a year in which there was a higher than usual number of reported incidents because of the attention drawn to the issue. 
 The LIRR embarked on the $20.7-million effort to shrink gaps between train cars and platforms after a Newsday investigation found there were more than 800 gap accidents from 1995 to early 2007. The investigation was spurred by the August 2006 death of Natalie Smead, 18, of <a href="/topics/Northfield">Northfield</a>, Minn., who fell into a gap at the Woodside station and was hit by a train. The project includes extending platforms by attaching 1-inch-wide boards and installing 4,560 metal threshold plates on <a href="/topics//The_Doors_(band)">the doors</a> of passenger cars in the LIRR's fleet. Officials say they expect to complete the project by January 2011. According to a memo written by Williams and released Wednesday, the LIRR installed 41,610 linear feet of one-inch edgeboard to platforms in 2008 and plans to add another 55,743 feet this year. The LIRR also adjusted platform heights at 26 platform edges in 2008 to reduce vertical gaps, and installed two-inch threshold plates on 86 of its "M-7" train cars. It has a goal of installing the plates on 672 cars this year. In the memo, Williams also lauded the LIRR's public awareness efforts, including recorded announcements by celebrities, in helping reducing gap accidents. There were 117 such accidents in 2008, compared with 175 in 2007. In 2006, the year in which <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a> began its investigation, there were 129 accidents. In the memo, Williams wrote that she was "pleased" with the reduction. Through 2008, the LIRR spent $12.2 million on its gap project, including $9.9 million in operating funds and $2.3 million in capital funds. It has set aside another $11.3 million in operating funds and $3 million from its capital budget to continue efforts this year. Williams proposed in November scaling back gap repair efforts in 2009 as part of $53 million in budget cuts -- potentially setting back completion of the project by two years. However, she later reconsidered the cuts and announced the gap-fixing project would go forward unhindered.

ny-gap0723-story

LIRR gap accidents down one-third

Stepping over the gap is still a risky move at the <a title="Long Island Rail Road" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/economy-business-finance/transportation-industry/railway-industry/long-island-rail-road-ORGOV0000002.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV0000002">Long Island Rail Road</a>'s Syosset station. While the LIRR explores long-term solutions for Syosset's yawning gaps, it already has taken several measures to improve safety at the station. But a <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a> review conducted this week found that even those interim measures have had mixed success: The station's $1.3-million closed-circuit television system is not fully functional, and conductors on some trains do not consult the video display screens before pulling out of the station. 
 Though the LIRR said it narrowed gaps on Track 2 to less than 10 inches, Newsday found gaps on that platform as wide as 11 inches. On Track 1, the railroad shifted platform slabs and bolted boards to the platform's edge, but gaps there still stretch as wide as 15 inches -- some of the widest in the system. The LIRR began fixing gaps after the death last August of a <a title="Minnesota" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/minnesota-PLGEO100102900000000.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100102900000000">Minnesota</a> teenager who slipped through a gap at the Woodside station and crawled in front of an oncoming train. Since then, the railroad has addressed about 70 percent of its worst gaps by shifting platforms, moving tracks, attaching wooden boards to platform edges and keeping some train doors closed. But railroad officials say they cannot narrow gaps on Syosset's Track 1 without a costly solution such as installing mechanical gap fillers or, perhaps, changing the geometry of the station's sharp curve. In March, the railroad unveiled the surveillance system, which includes 12 cameras and three display screens on each of two platforms, allowing train crews to see the entire length of the sharply curved platforms. Newsday found several problems with the system: Two screens are missing, and others are hard to read because of glare. Train conductors often did not have a direct view of the screens because of their train's location on the platform. And some conductors with a clear view of the screens still did not look at them, Newsday observed. McGowan said the two missing screens are being repaired and will be replaced by the end of June. An anti-glare glaze will be applied to all of the screens, she said. Anthony Simon, general chairman of the United Transportation Union, said some conductors are not yet in the habit of looking up at the screens. "It's a new system," he said. "The conductors are so used to looking for their platform conductor. That's there first source of information." Newsday found that platform conductors, equipped with air horns and radios, consistently communicated with train crews to signal that it was safe to pull out of the station. Simon noted that when two trains pull into the station, the platform conductor only assists the train traveling in the rush-hour direction. He argued, however, that the $1.3 million for the camera surveillance system could have been better spent to assign more platform conductors. The LIRR expects to spend about $587,000 on platform conductors this year.

ny-ligap0723-photoa

At one station, LIRR still hasn't closed gap

Passengers on the <a title="Long Island Rail Road" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/economy-business-finance/transportation-industry/railway-industry/long-island-rail-road-ORGOV0000002.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV0000002">Long Island Rail Road</a> run a higher risk of injury than those on other rail divisions in the metropolitan area -- Metro-North, NJ Transit and the New York City subways -- accident data for each of the lines show. According to <a title="Metropolitan Transportation Authority" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/travel/commuting/metropolitan-transportation-authority-ORGOV000097.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV000097">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a> and NJ Transit data on injuries including slips on ice, stumbles on escalators and falls through platform gaps, LIRR riders had the highest rate of accidents in 2004 and 2005 compared with the other three rails. And in the past decade -- from 1996 through 2005 -- it had either the highest or second-highest rate of accidents compared with the other three rails. For example, in 2005, the last full year data were available, 419 LIRR passengers, or 5.2 passengers per million, were injured, the statistics show. This rate represents about a 58 percent greater risk of injury than NJ Transit, a 68 percent greater rate compared with the subways, and more than double the risk compared with Metro-North. Moreover, serious injuries -- those that require more than just basic first aid and must be reported to the <a href="/topics//Federal_Railroad_Administration">Federal Railroad Administration</a> -- increased at the LIRR from 43 in 2000 to 132 in 2004, according to the railroad. NJ Transit's numbers for those years also increased, but at a lower rate. In 2000, NJ Transit said it reported 29 serious injuries to the Federal Railroad Administration. In 2004, 53 were reported. Meanwhile, Metro-North said that the number of serious injuries it reported to the Federal Railroad Administration fell from 89 in 2000 to 81 in 2004. The Federal Railroad Administration does not monitor the subways. 
 When asked about the overall higher rates for accidents on the LIRR compared with Metro-North, LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan said her railroad has a greater number of busy transfer hubs and terminals. LIRR has 124 passenger stations that in 2005 served 80.1 million riders; Metro-North has 120 stations for its 74.6 million passengers in 2005; NJ Transit has 162 stations that in 2005 served 66.9 million riders; and the subways have 468 stations that served 2.2 billion passengers. Over the past decade, McGowan points out, the LIRR has been able to reduce its customer accident rate by about 50 percent. The LIRR had a decade-high injury rate of 10.36 per million passengers in 1996, according to the <a href="/topics/MTA">MTA</a> data. In that year, there were 770 customer injuries, the LIRR's latest data show. While the LIRR has gotten safer overall since 1995, passengers are more prone to suffer an injury because of a gap fall, according to the statistics. In 1995, the 70 gap accidents made up 10.3 percent of the customer injuries. In 2005, gap injuries were at least 16.2 percent of the customer injuries. It's difficult to get an exact accounting of the 2005 numbers because while an LIRR database for 2005 shows 68 gap falls, the railroad's accident reports indicate that there were 81 gap incidents that year. LIRR officials have attributed the accounting differences to late filing of accident reports by passengers. The officials also said that some incidents were caused by a variety of factors -- such as a platform slip -- and so they were classified in a category other than a gap fall. In comparison to NJ Transit and its sister rails -- Metro-North and the subways -- the LIRR had the most gap incidents from 2003 through 2005. The LIRR database and accident reports combined show that the railroad had 73 gap falls in 2003 and 70 in 2004.

ny-ligap0723-storyc

LIRR passenger risk higher than other area rail lines

ny-ligap0723-photod

LIRR gaps: Thirty years of neglect

Lawsuits against the <a title="Long Island Rail Road" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/economy-business-finance/transportation-industry/railway-industry/long-island-rail-road-ORGOV0000002.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV0000002">Long Island Rail Road</a> stemming from falls into the gap date back more than 35 years, with plaintiffs claiming injuries as severe as torn ligaments, fractured bones, paralysis and dismemberment. <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a> examined 500 of the thousands of personal injury lawsuits filed since 1970 against the LIRR and its parent agency, the <a title="Metropolitan Transportation Authority" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/travel/commuting/metropolitan-transportation-authority-ORGOV000097.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV000097">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a>. The suits were chosen by a Newsday reporter from courts in <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a>, <a href="/topics//Nassau_County,_NY">Nassau</a>, Queens, <a title="Manhattan (New York City)" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/new-york/new-york-city/manhattan-%28new-york-city%29-PLGEO100100804010000.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100100804010000">Manhattan</a> and Brooklyn. That review turned up 63 gap-related injury suits and 65 claims for slips and falls on stairs. These two categories were the most common claims of the 500 cases examined. The gap plaintiffs Newsday found ranged in age from 17 to 82, with the majority in their 20s and 30s when they fell into a gap. Many were daily commuters. 
 Most plaintiffs settled before trial but were reluctant to disclose their settlement figures, and some signed nondisclosure agreements. Newsday found that the railroad paid out $681,500 to 15 of the gap victims whose settlement figures were available. Those 15 cases have been settled since 1985. "How much money are they spending paying out for these victims of accidents when they could be putting the money into fixing the problems?" asked Sally Srok, 42, who sued the LIRR after her 1990 fall into a gap at the <a href="/topics//Mineola,_NY">Mineola</a> station. Srok, now a project developer living in <a title="California" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/california-PLGEO100100100000000.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100100100000000">California</a>, opted to accept a settlement for her leg injury in 1994, though she declined to specify the amount. Despite several requests from Newsday, LIRR officials repeatedly said that they do not comment on litigation matters. Of the legal cases Newsday looked at, there were 16 pending gap-related lawsuits, with one seeking $50 million in damages, the highest amount of any of the lawsuits reviewed. The suit was filed by Sheila Rann, 67, a former Rockette who broke her neck in a fall through the gap at the <a title="Forest Hills" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/new-york/new-york-city/queens-%28new-york-city%29/forest-hills-PLGEO100100805012500.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100100805012500">Forest Hills</a> station on Oct. 8, 2004. Rann is now paralyzed from the neck down, making her among the most severely injured in recent years from a gap fall, according to court records. And in the case of the railroad's most high-profile gap incident, one that led to the death of <a title="Minnesota" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/minnesota-PLGEO100102900000000.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100102900000000">Minnesota</a> teen Natalie Smead, her family filed suit in October seeking $5 million in damages. Most of the pending suits have not asked for a specific amount in damages. Suits that have been settled and had asked for an amount are typically settled for a fraction of what was asked. That was the case for Arlene Gold, of <a href="/topics//Hewlett,_NY">Hewlett</a>, who was 49 when she plunged through the gap at <a href="/topics/Jamaica">Jamaica</a> on March 29, 1982, severely crushing her left leg. Gold sued the LIRR for $100,000 and settled three years later for $3,000, frustrated with the protracted legal proceedings. Josephine Manteria of <a href="/topics//North_Merrick,_NY">North Merrick</a>, who sued for $1 million in 1993 after falling through a gap at <a href="/topics//Merrick,_NY">Merrick</a> and injuring her leg, settled in 1998 for $12,000. The few jury verdicts that were awarded for gap injuries were generally higher than the settlement amounts. The railroad awarded a total of $510,000 to two passengers who fell into the gap at Penn Station's Track 17 in the 1980s, Newsday found. One case involved a 29-year-old <a title="New York University" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/new-york-university-OREDU0000130.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="OREDU0000130">New York University</a> student who fractured his tailbone after a 1983 accident. The man said he was pushed into the gap by a "surge of commuters." His attorney said the LIRR should have bridged the gap with a movable platform or kept the doors closed at the danger spots. The student sued for $2 million. While a $400,000 verdict was awarded, it was reduced to $360,000 because it was found by a jury to be partially the victim's fault. Another suit involved a 48-year-old public relations employee who fractured his ankle in 1988 when he fell into the gap up to his hip. The LIRR's response was that the man was aware of the gap and wasn't paying attention when he fell. The jury found that the <a href="/topics/MTA">MTA</a> and LIRR were completely at fault and awarded $150,000 to the plaintiff. Not all passengers who fall into gaps report the incident, and of those who do, only a fraction sue for damages, records and interviews show. Paul <a href="/topics//Edelman">Edelman</a>, a personal injury lawyer in <a href="/topics/Carle_Place">Carle Place</a> who said he has handled about 10 gap-related suits against the LIRR in the last 20 years, said that sometimes people are too embarrassed to file suit against the railroad immediately. "People will call, after the fact, and I ask, did you call anyone? They'll say no, I fell, got up, people were looking at me. I was embarrassed. I got up, my leg was killing me, I got on the train. My leg didn't get better," Edelman said. Under state law, a victim has to notify the railroad that they plan to sue within 90 days, or the case will be dropped. Rose Zully, who fell into the gap at Valley Stream in 1970, lost her ability to proceed with her suit because she filed late. The 72-year-old widow said in court papers that her debilitating injuries caused her to miss the deadline.

ny-ligap0723-storye

Litany of gap claims filed against LIRR

In just four pages, the state Public Transportation Safety Board concluded that Natalie Smead became the <a title="Long Island Rail Road" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/economy-business-finance/transportation-industry/railway-industry/long-island-rail-road-ORGOV0000002.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV0000002">Long Island Rail Road</a>'s first gap-related fatality because she put herself in the path of an oncoming train and because she was drunk. The board's conclusion so unnerved Najm Meshkati, who has studied railroad safety for more than 20 years, that he said he couldn't sleep. What kept Meshkati up was that the investigation into the 18-year-old's fall into the gap and her subsequent death was reduced to a few concise pages. Meshkati pointed out that it offered no immediate recommendations, only the possibility of some in the future after a broader study into the gap issue. "They are blaming the victim," said Meshkati, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern <a href="/topics/California">California</a>. "She is really a victim of system failure. I was very sad when I read this." While vacationing from <a title="Minnesota" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/minnesota-PLGEO100102900000000.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100102900000000">Minnesota</a>, Smead had been drinking <a href="/topics//Red_Bull">Red Bull</a> and vodka on the train on Aug. 5 before falling at the Woodside station. Her cousin had told her to stay put, but she scrambled to the other side where an oncoming train struck her. Smead's blood alcohol level was at .23 percent, nearly three times the legal limit for driving. Smead did not purchase her alcohol from the <a href="/topics//MTA">MTA</a>. 
 The PTSB report on her death concluded that "the most probable cause of this accident was the young woman's actions that positioned her in the path of an oncoming train. Contributing to the cause of this accident was the young .woman's .alcohol impaired condition." The PTSB is continuing to explore the gap issue beyond just the Smead .incident, and the <a href="/topics//National_Transportation_Safety_Board">National Transportation Safety Board</a> is conducting a separate investigation into Smead's death. Bob Sullivan, a lawyer representing Smead's parents in a legal claim against the <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> and the <a title="Metropolitan Transportation Authority" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/travel/commuting/metropolitan-transportation-authority-ORGOV000097.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV000097">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a>, said it is "shameful" that the railroad has presented itself as a safe alternative for people who have been drinking, then have the PTSB blame Smead for her death. Jenna Cohen, president of <a title="Mothers Against Drunk Driving" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/social-issues/mothers-against-drunk-driving-ORCIG000023.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORCIG000023">MADD</a>-<a title="New York" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/new-york-PLGEO100100800000000.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100100800000000">New York</a> based in <a title="Huntington Station" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/new-york/suffolk-county-%28new-york%29/huntington-%28suffolk-new-york%29/huntington-station-PLGEO000694NY.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO000694NY">Huntington Station</a> agreed. "The victim did the right thing and took public transportation," she said. "If there wasn't a gap, she wouldn't have fallen through." Jennifer Nelson, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, argued the state can only do so much to protect people riding the trains. The PTSB is an arm of the transportation department that investigates any fatal accidents involving the state's mass transit authorities. "There needs to be a measure of personal responsibility when traveling on public transportation," she said. "We can only do so much to engineer people's safety when they don't take responsibility for their actions." Nelson said Smead would have been safe if she had followed a conductor's instructions after falling through the gap. "When she fell, she was uninjured and the railroad gave her specific instructions to stay put," Nelson said. "Because of her impairment, her judgment was lacking. She was instructed to stay still, she was instructed not to move. She pulled away from her friend because of the fact that she was drunk." Meshkati, however, believes Smead died as a result of railroad officials failing to stop the oncoming train. He said the most disturbing aspect of the report is that there is no questioning of what happened during the 58 seconds between Smead's fall and when she was struck. In the world of train safety, 58 seconds is a long time, Meshkati said. "They really need to take a hard look at this accident, use it to evaluate and assess their emergency response, decision making, information systems and technological subsystems," Meshkati said. The PTSB is expected to release its larger gap study in the spring. A spokesman for the NTSB said the agency is still preparing its own report on Smead's death, which will be released in several months. An NTSB probe typically results in the .release of volumes of information.

ny-ligap0723f

Critics: Report blames victim

<a href="/topics//Eric_Bell">Eric Bell</a> wants to know why it took decades for the <a title="Long Island Rail Road" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/economy-business-finance/transportation-industry/railway-industry/long-island-rail-road-ORGOV0000002.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV0000002">Long Island Rail Road</a> to do something about the gaps between trains and platforms that led to hundreds of falls. "Did it have to accumulate to a point where they were forced to do something about it?" asked <a href="/topics//Eric_Bell">Bell</a>, 37, of Huntington, at the Huntington train station. <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> commuters interviewed Friday disagreed about whether the railroad should bear the brunt of the blame for what is now the No. 1 cause of accidents for riders. On the 6:57 a.m. train out of <a href="/topics//Port_Jefferson,_NY">Port Jefferson</a>, four riders were split on the topic and laughed when they heard gap warnings played over the loudspeakers. 
 "I think people should take more responsibility for their own drunken acts," said Nadia Hafeez, of Port Jefferson, referring to the August gap-related death of a teenager. Lori Schiaffino, 43, of Huntington, disagreed and placed the blame on the <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a>. "There is no reason they can't design a train that, when the train stops, a platform comes out," Schiaffino said. An estimated 38 percent of the <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a>'s platforms have problem gaps, and they will be reduced by the spring of next year, LIRR officials revealed Thursday. Since 1995, the LIRR has logged 882 gap incidents, according to records obtained and analyzed by <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a>. A Newsday investigation revealed that no railroadwide repair effort was undertaken until after the death of Natalie Smead, 18, a tourist from <a title="Minnesota" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/minnesota-PLGEO100102900000000.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100102900000000">Minnesota</a> who fell through a gap at the Woodside station and crawled into the path of an oncoming train. Her blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit for driving. Simon Sacks, 38, of <a title="Huntington Station" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/new-york/suffolk-county-%28new-york%29/huntington-%28suffolk-new-york%29/huntington-station-PLGEO000694NY.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO000694NY">Huntington Station</a>, said the LIRR should have made changes the first time somebody fell through a gap years ago. "They obviously didn't act in a reasonable time," Sacks said. "It looks like they could have prevented incidents from occurring and that's the big shame -- the failure to prevent." Diane Pirozzi, 61, of <a href="/topics//Belle_Terre,_NY">Belle Terre</a>, thought crowded conditions can lead to accidents. "You get stuck in a wave of people sometimes, and if you are a tourist, for example, you may not realize it," she said. <a href="/topics/Paul_Nash">Paul Nash</a>, 58, of <a href="/topics/Port_Jefferson_Station">Port Jefferson Station</a>, said ultimately it's the rider's responsibility to board safely. "If you have a problem, ask for help," <a href="/topics//Paul_Nash">Nash</a> said. "Accidents happen, but do you want to pay too much money for what is a small safety measure?" Sitting in the waiting area at the <a href="/topics//Babylon,_NY">Babylon</a> station in front of a "Watch the Gap" poster, Maria Soos said people should stop placing the blame on the railroad. "We can't wait for somebody to fix everything for us," said Soos, 70, of <a href="/topics/Bay_Shore">Bay Shore</a>. "People aren't paying .attention." For years, Gini Spinelli, 67, of <a href="/topics//Valley_Stream,_NY">Valley Stream</a>, has watched nervously as elderly riders and people with young children have negotiated gaps. Customers, she said, shouldn't be put in harm's way. "I am amazed," Spinelli said at the Babylon station. "They knew about it and they weren't doing anything. That shouldn't be." Had the railroad taken precautionary measures, Eric Witherspoon's cousin would not have fallen through a gap several months ago and hurt her back, he said. She now has a pending lawsuit against the railroad, he said. "They're scrambling now," said Witherspoon, 37, of <a title="Richmond Hill" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/new-york/new-york-city/queens-%28new-york-city%29/richmond-hill-PLGEO100100805015900.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100100805015900">Richmond Hill</a>, at the Babylon station. "But if they would've done this 10 years ago, might have never died and my cousin definitely wouldn't have injured herself."

ny-liriders0722

Riders are split over the blame

When the <a title="Long Island Rail Road" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/economy-business-finance/transportation-industry/railway-industry/long-island-rail-road-ORGOV0000002.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV0000002">Long Island Rail Road</a>'s gap problems were highlighted last summer, a retired civil engineer from <a href="/topics//Kings_Park,_NY">Kings Park</a> started thinking about a solution. Tom Rosati, 76, thought that perhaps the <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> could <a href="/topics//Benefit_(designer)">benefit</a> from a rubber bumper on platform edges, similar to the rubber fenders used for boats in marinas. "This would be hard rubber so if the train bumped it, it wouldn't tear," he said. Rosati said he built a model of the rubber bumper and sent a picture of the model as well as a catalog describing the maritime fenders to <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a> officials for them to consider. Other than acknowledging receiving the catalog, Rosati said he hasn't gotten a response. Rosati isn't alone in wanting to help the LIRR. Railroad officials have received suggestions ranging in price and complexity. They include an automated bridge that would deploy from the train door to the station platform, and a retractable platform extender already in use at three New York City subway stations. 
 Taking them all in Ray Kenny, LIRR acting president, said he hasn't ruled out any suggestions but is now focusing on three possible solutions: widening train doorsteps; installing mechanical gap fillers on sharply curved platforms; and reducing the railroad's standard for the distance between platforms and tracks, with platforms then extended to reduce the gap. While the search continues for solutions to some of its worst gaps -- which the railroad itself has measured as being as wide as 151/2 inches -- the LIRR is making efforts to reduce gap sizes by moving platforms, realigning tracks, tacking wooden boards to platform edges and ratcheting up its education campaign with new signs and brochures. The railroad expects to make improvements to 100 of its 262 platforms at passenger stations by the spring of next year. LIRR officials have not disclosed dollar amounts for the partial fixes, and it's likely that later measures will be more costly. A possible solution that's already being used in the subways, specifically at the <a title="Times Square" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/travel/commuting/times-square-PLTRA0000160.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLTRA0000160">Times Square</a>, South Ferry and Union Square stations, could run at least $400,000 per train doorway. The gap fillers used are large, metal sections that are about 18 feet long by 6 feet wide and extend from the edge of the platform as the train arrives. LIRR officials say they are reviewing gap fillers used at various cities. John Hayday, the president of Jaygo Inc. in Union, N.J., which manufactured the product for the subways, said it's not clear how much the project would cost the LIRR, as it depends on how many doors they opt to outfit with the retractable platforms. A retractable bridge The LIRR also has considered a variation of the gap filler that extends from trains rather than platforms. Kenny said his team studied a video of a European train with a retractable bridge. The railroad initially ruled out the device because the manufacturer of LIRR trains warned that it would interfere with train components. Kenny said the railroad would continue to look for more practical versions. A similar device to the retractable bridge is the brainchild of an Australian inventor. Kevin Fullerton's Glidelok is a ramp that finds the platform level and deploys within six seconds. So far, Fullerton's contraption is just a prototype, as it is not being used in any rail system. He said he is currently seeking a patent for his product and envisions selling it at between $4,000 and $15,000 per ramp. In dealing with especially large gaps at the ends of platforms, LIRR officials said that currently, conductors are instructed not to open the doors at those spots. Metro-North, .LIRR's sister rail system, also does the same. In addition, at Metro-North's <a title="Marble Hill" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/new-york/new-york-city/bronx-%28new-york-city%29/marble-hill-PLGEO100100801012300.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO100100801012300">Marble Hill</a> station, which is curved, workers erected a 3-foot-high fence to serve as a visual indicator that the engineer shouldn't pull up to that spot. The fence also serves as a physical barrier for passengers in case the train goes too far and the doors open to a large gap, Metro-North spokesman <a href="/topics//Dan_Brucker">Dan Brucker</a> said. While many of these solutions address gaps of wide spaces, there are measures railroads have taken to reduce gaps by a few inches. The Metro in <a href="/topics//Washington,_D.C.">Washington, D.C.</a>, is proof that Rosati might be on the right track with his bumper idea. Bumper cars Since 1999, Metro trains have used rubber strips to widen the doorsteps of its subway cars, reducing the distance between the edge of the doorstep and the platform. The strips were installed soon after a passenger caught his leg in a gap and was dragged to death by the train. Transportation officials in Washington said that even before the death, they were already looking into the rubber strips to improve access for the disabled. The rubber strips have reduced gaps from 4 inches down to 11/2 inches, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said. While most transportation experts agree that education is not itself a solution to the gap problem, Carl Berkowitz, a transportation consultant from <a title="Moriches" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/us/new-york/suffolk-county-%28new-york%29/brookhaven-%28suffolk-new-york%29/moriches-PLGEO0000723NY.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO0000723NY">Moriches</a> and former engineer with the <a title="New York City Transit" href="http://www.newsday.com/topic/economy-business-finance/transportation-industry/public-transportation-industry/new-york-city-transit-ORGOV0000003.topic" class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORGOV0000003">New York City Transit</a> Authority who has studied foreign transit systems, believes that a comprehensive awareness campaign goes a long way. He notes that in <a href="/topics/London">London</a>, "Mind the Gap" is widely associated with the Underground system. The slogan is so pervasive there that it has even carried over into popular culture with songs and T-shirts. Berkowitz said similar warnings also are used in other countries such as <a href="/topics/Japan">Japan</a>, <a href="/topics/China">China</a> and <a href="/topics/Singapore">Singapore</a>, where people have an understanding to be mindful of the gap. It's unfortunate, Berkowitz said, that the LIRR has only recently begun to focus on its education campaign in earnest. "Why didn't they do it 30 or 40 years ago?" he asked.

ny-lisolu0722

Fix-it solutions offered

The <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> in recent months has realigned tracks, shifted platforms and tacked wooden boards to platform edges -- all in a concentrated effort to shrink the dangerous spaces between trains and platforms. But the ease and simplicity of these techniques -- which railroad officials say do narrow gaps but don't completely solve the problem -- have left victims of gap falls pointing to a missed opportunity. Why, they ask, didn't the railroad do this before Natalie Smead's August death? Five months later, railroad officials still have not answered that question. An examination of the track realignment process reveals another missed opportunity: Track resurfacing crews for decades have been measuring the distance between tracks and platforms -- a number that can be used to calculate the gap between platforms and trains -- yet the <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> never kept the measurements or used them to identify problem gaps. Taking measures For decades, the <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a> only occasionally used concrete measures to prevent gap falls, installing lights and wooden boards along platform edges at a handful of stations and assigning a platform conductor to the <a href="/topics//Syosset,_NY">Syosset</a> station. It chose instead to focus on warning passengers to "Watch the Gap." In recent months, the railroad has assigned platform conductors to five more stations and has expanded its use of wooden edge boards. And it has for the first time used track realignment -- a technique used in regular maintenance -- to narrow gaps, shifting tracks closer to platforms at 17 stations since August. "The idea of making platforms wider by simply putting a piece of wood in is a simple solution," said Joseph Laino, 69, of <a href="/topics//Mineola,_NY">Mineola</a>, who fell in a gap at Penn Station in 1986. "Why didn't they think about this 20 years earlier?" The railroad announced yesterday a plan to reduce gaps -- by shifting platforms, realigning tracks and installing edge boards -- on an estimated 38 percent of its platforms by the spring of 2008. However, measures such as track realignment may have little or no impact on some of the railroad's widest gaps, which occur on sharply curved platforms, railroad officials said. The LIRR so far has not released the cost of its gap-reduction program, its recent education efforts or future work. LIRR acting president Ray Kenny said the railroad was working to "capture the costs," which have been funded largely through its regular track maintenance budget. Kenny declined to say why measures such as edge boards -- used widely by the Metro-North Railroad -- weren't employed sooner by the LIRR. No 'immediate solution' "We're not going to have an immediate solution or initiative that's going to totally eliminate any of the risk," Kenny said. "But we're just trying to do what we can do. The surfacing [track realignment] is an example of that. It may be only an incremental improvement, but we want to make any improvement we can make." Plans for more complex measures -- such as refitting trains with wider door steps or installing mechanical gap fillers -- could take longer, LIRR officials said. "They've taken some very constructive, positive, common-sense steps, but those are the quick fixes," said State Sen. <a href="/topics/Dean_Skelos">Dean Skelos</a> (R-<a href="/topics//Rockville_Centre,_NY">Rockville Centre</a>), who serves on the <a href="/topics/Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a> Capital Project Review Board. "Now what they have to do is look into the more dramatic and, probably, costly aspects of dealing with the problem." Realigning tracks Realigning tracks is at best a partial solution to the gap problem, which at the LIRR, includes gaps of up to 151/2 inches on curved platforms and up to 133/4 inches on a straight platform, according to measurements taken by the railroad in September. In some cases, track realignment can reduce the gap by an inch or two. In other instances, particularly where there are sharp curves, the technique can't be used to reduce the gap at all. Track realignment is the process by which maintenance crews move tracks both vertically and horizontally, bringing them back into place after weather and use have caused them to sink or shift slightly out of place. Maintenance crews realign tracks every three to five years, depending on the type of rails and the amount of traffic there, railroad officials said. When tracks are realigned, LIRR maintenance crews aim to set the center of tracks 5 feet, 8 inches from platforms. This internal standard, which is 1 inch farther from platforms than the minimum required by <a href="/topics/New_York">New York</a> State railroad law, corresponds to a platform gap of 8 inches. Track realignment consists of several steps. After the track maintenance crew measures the distance between the track and the platform, they use a machine called a tamper car to bring the track into proper alignment. On its second pass over the tracks, the tamper clamps onto the rails and lifts them. Fork-like tongs then dig into the ballast around the rail ties and push more stones under the tie. When the machine releases the rails, that segment will rest at the desired position. Other fixes Since August, the railroad has shifted platforms at a handful of stations to address the gap problem, lifting them with manual jacks and moving them a few inches closer to the tracks. The railroad can make these adjustments only to platforms that are built in sections -- not those consisting of one large piece. The LIRR also has expanded its use of platform edge boards, which until recently had been installed at just a few stations. The wooden boards, tacked to the edges of platforms, can reduce gaps by a few inches. This relatively cheap solution is the most common gap solution across the United States, according to the American Public Transportation Association, a bus, rapid transit and commuter rail industry group. Metro-North, which has been using edge boards throughout its system for two decades, said the wood strips allow them to reduce gaps inexpensively and safely. They often are knocked off by freight trains -- which are wider than passenger trains -- but the strips cause no damage and are easily replaced. Metro-North officials said they could not give a cost estimate because it is part of the railroad's maintenance budget. Since Smead's death, the railroad has amplified its "Watch the Gap" campaign, posting a video on its Web site, developing a new pictographic sign, stenciling the message on platform edges and displaying the words on ticket machine screens and train schedule displays. Passengers hear announcements in stations, on platforms and in trains. "Now on the train they say, 'Watch the Gap,' and I want to laugh," said Melissa Kalbacher of Manhattan, who fell into a gap at Hunters Point in January 1998 and has since had three knee surgeries. "They never used to say that. It's really a shame they had to wait."

nyg-limove0119

Victims ask why recent fixes weren't done sooner

Any other day, Lori Wright might have just waited. But on the morning of Jan. 30, 1996, Wright had a business meeting in Manhattan and her westbound LIRR train had been stuck going on 15 minutes at Syosset station without explanation. Wright got off, figuring she'd catch the next <a href="/topics/Manhattan">Manhattan</a>-bound train that was scheduled to arrive across the platform any minute. Instead, the <a href="/topics//Huntington_Station,_NY">Huntington Station</a> resident found herself dangling waist-deep in the gap between the platform and the train, her black leather briefcase the only thing that saved her from falling to the tracks. Wright did not know at the time, but on that day, she had become the third person in less than 90 minutes to fall into a gap at the dangerously curved Syosset station. "I took <a href="/topics//One_Step_(designer)">one step</a> off and went down," said Wright, 41, who sustained a deep gash in her right leg from the fall. "It was like 'boom,' I never expected it." As passengers hoisted Wright to safety, the ambulance carrying Richard Querni of <a href="/topics//Bayville,_NY">Bayville</a> -- the second person to fall into a gap that morning -- was still in the parking lot. It was later in the same hospital hallway where Querni and Wright were each awaiting treatment that the two gap victims first learned about each other. At the time, the two had no idea that Lisa Rispoli of <a href="/topics/Oyster_Bay">Oyster Bay</a>, also had slipped into a gap and hurt her leg at the Syosset station earlier that morning on her way to Manhattan. Wright went on to sue the <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> for $1 million; Querni, 64, who broke his back in the fall, sued for $10 million. Both Querni and Wright have since settled their <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> suits. Under an agreement, Querni is not permitted to disclose the amount of his settlement. Wright declined to disclose her settlement amount. History of falls With its sharply curving platforms, the Syosset station has a long history of wide gaps -- Querni fell through a space that measured between 13 and 18 inches, according to depositions from his lawsuit. Since 1989, at least 39 people have fallen into the gap at that station, court records show. By 1996, the <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a> had already placed a platform conductor to patrol at Syosset every day during the morning rush to help passengers navigate the large gaps. Until mid-November, when patrols were added at five stations, it was the only station where such an arrangement existed. While the LIRR acknowledged Querni and Wright's falls, railroad officials and <a href="/topics/Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a> police attributed the incidents to the icy conditions of that morning. The <a href="/topics//MTA">MTA</a> police documented Rispoli's fall but did not state a cause. The LIRR maintained in affidavits in Querni's suit that his fall "was produced by the icy condition on the platform, not because of the existence of space between the train and the platform." Similarly, the MTA police official who filled out Wright's accident report said she "slipped on the yellow strip which was icy." "People were slipping and sliding all over the place," said the platform conductor, Michael Thiele, in a deposition for Querni's lawsuit. " ... It was almost impossible to walk." Thiele did not return phone calls seeking comment. Court records, however, state that Thiele began his day at 5:30 a.m. It was a gray, frosty morning, and a thin layer of black ice coated much of the platforms. A half-hour into Thiele's shift, he called LIRR officials in <a href="/topics/Jamaica">Jamaica</a> from a pay phone at the station, asking for public announcements about the icy conditions and a maintenance worker to sand and salt the platform, court records show. About the same time, Rispoli, 43, wearing thick-soled Timberland boots, was leaving her home in <a href="/topics//Oyster_Bay,_NY">Oyster Bay</a> to make the 6:26 a.m. train to Penn Station. As she stepped onto the train -- and across what she described in a letter to LIRR officials two weeks later as a 15-inch gap -- Rispoli slipped on the ice and into the breach up to her elbows, becoming the day's first victim. Passengers lifted her back onto the platform. "I was standing there, trying to figure out what happened," Rispoli said. "My leg was really burning. My tights were ripped." Rispoli, credits her long wool coat with preventing her from slipping through to the tracks below and possibly receiving graver injuries. "It went up [on both sides] and saved me," she said. "It gave me the width." In the weeks following, Rispoli -- whose wound required several stitches -- called and wrote to the LIRR several times to tell them about her fall. Eventually, the railroad reimbursed her for the cost of her suit and stockings. Rispoli was surprised to learn recently through a <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a> reporter that there were two others who fell into a gap as she did on that same day. Connecting the cases Meanwhile, it was Querni's wife, Yolanda, who was at Syosset hospital with him on the morning of his fall who first found out about Wright. Yolanda Querni overheard a hospital employee mention that another gap victim from the train station had come in for treatment. She went over to where Wright lay with bandages on her leg. "I was curious," Yolanda Querni said. "I reported back to my husband, who was stretched out on a gurney." Querni had fallen getting on the train at 7:25 a.m., causing Wright's delay. Wright fell less than 20 minutes later, at 7:43 a.m. The morning of his fall, Querni specifically wore rubber-soled shoes with traction, he said. And he held onto the doorway of the train to steady himself as he stepped carefully over the space. "My trailing foot slipped out," Querni said, describing how his whole body slipped, sideways, through the gap. "I twisted, then got wedged momentarily, hip to hip between the train and the platform, then I went right through." He said his fall fractured a vertebrae in his back, broke several ribs, herniated a disc and left him with permanent nerve damage in his foot. His injuries were documented in court papers based on medical records. Even after two subsequent back surgeries, Querni says he is in constant pain and has a permanent limp. Immediately after her fall, Wright was treated for a soft tissue injury to her leg. Three weeks after the accident, Wright said she developed a deep tissue infection in the wound. "In bad weather, my leg still hurts," she said. At about 9 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 30, 1996, more than an hour after Wright had fallen into the gap, court records show that railroad employees arrived to de-ice the Syosset platform.

ny-lisyos0120

Three falls in Syosset within 90 minutes

Accidents on the <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> involving gaps between trains and station platforms were down 33 percent in 2008 as compared to 2007, LIRR officials said Wednesday. 
 The announcement came as LIRR president <a href="/topics/Helena_Williams">Helena Williams</a> updated the <a href="/topics/MTA">MTA</a>'s <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> Committee on the progress made so far in the rail road's ongoing efforts to repair the dangerous gaps. 
 "We still have a long way to go in terms of educating the public," Williams said. "We're very proud at the reduction. We'd like to bring that down some more." 
 Williams also acknowledged that the reduction in accidents in 2008 followed a year in which there was a higher than usual number of reported incidents because of the attention drawn to the issue. 
 The LIRR embarked on the $20.7-million effort to shrink gaps between train cars and platforms after a <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a> investigation found there were more than 800 gap accidents from 1995 to early 2007. 
 The investigation was spurred by the August 2006 death of Natalie Smead, 18, of <a href="/topics/Northfield">Northfield</a>, Minn., who fell into a gap at the Woodside station and was hit by a train. 
 The project includes extending platforms by attaching 1-inch-wide boards and installing 4,560 metal threshold plates on <a href="/topics//The_Doors_(band)">the doors</a> of passenger cars in the LIRR's fleet. Officials say they expect to complete the project by January 2011. 
 According to a memo written by Williams and released Wednesday, the LIRR installed 41,610 linear feet of one-inch edgeboard to platforms in 2008 and plans to add another 55,743 feet this year. 
 The LIRR also adjusted platform heights at 26 platform edges in 2008 to reduce vertical gaps, and installed two-inch threshold plates on 86 of its "M-7" train cars. It has a goal of installing the plates on 672 cars this year. 
 In the memo, Williams also lauded the LIRR's public awareness efforts, including recorded announcements by celebrities, in helping reducing gap accidents. 
 There were 117 such accidents in 2008, compared with 175 in 2007. In 2006, the year in which Newsday began its investigation, there were 129 accidents. 
 In the memo, Williams wrote that she was "pleased" with the reduction. 
 Through 2008, the LIRR spent $12.2 million on its gap project, including $9.9 million in operating funds and $2.3 million in capital funds. It has set aside another $11.3 million in operating funds and $3 million from its capital budget to continue efforts this year. 
 Williams proposed in November scaling back gap repair efforts in 2009 as part of $53 million in budget cuts -- potentially setting back completion of the project by two years. 
 However, she later reconsidered the cuts and announced the gap-fixing project would go forward unhindered.

ny-ligap0318

The gap problem now facing the <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> was set in motion more than 150 years ago, as the fledgling railroad pushed east from <a href="/topics/Jamaica">Jamaica</a>, building stations on donated land. 
 In the early days of train travel, passengers climbed onto steam trains from ground level, mounting stairs built into the sides of the cars. 
 Towns and villages that wanted <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> stations provided land to the railroad. It posed no problem then that many of these parcels sat on curved sections of track. 
 Many years later, however, those curves would create some of the worst gaps on the railroad -- gaps the <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a> now is trying to narrow. 
 In the beginning 
 In the 1830s, as the newly incorporated LIRR expanded to <a href="/topics//Hicksville,_NY">Hicksville</a> and <a href="/topics//Farmingdale,_NY">Farmingdale</a>, it used whatever land local officials made available to build stations, said LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan. 
 Forty percent of the LIRR's stations were built on curved sections of track. 
 "It may have started 150 years ago as a little, tiny platform where a conductor came down and put a box on the ground ... and it has now turned into Hicksville station," said Metro-North Commuter Railroad spokeswoman Marjorie Anders. 
 Those curves proved problematic when the railroad began raising platforms to the height of train doors in the early 1900s -- a practice that expanded in the '50s and '60s. 
 Engineers faced a new dilemma: If they set tracks too close to these raised platforms, trains might plow into the platforms. But if they set the tracks too far away, passengers risked falling into the gap they had created. 
 Gap standards 
 Another century-old factor contributing to the size of platform gaps emerged when the LIRR began offering service to the newly built Penn Station. To use Penn Station, the LIRR had to meet clearance requirements -- still effective today -- that restrict train width to no more than 10 feet. 
 Narrower trains mean wider gaps. 
 The railroad industry developed standards for the minimum clearance needed for freight trains -- which are wider than passenger trains -- to pass safely. This standard, mandated by <a href="/topics/New_York">New York</a> state railroad law, is 5 feet, 7 inches from the center of the tracks to the platform. 
 Metro-North uses this measurement as its internal standard. The LIRR, however, sets its tracks an extra inch farther from the platform, a practice dating to 1963. LIRR officials, who are now reconsidering the practice, said they did not know why it was adopted. 
 These internal standards combined with the widths of the train can be used to calculate gap sizes. 
 Metro-North, which does not use Penn Station, has wider trains than the LIRR. As a result, Metro-North's standard minimum gap is as small as 5 inches, while the LIRR's is 8 inches. 
 Government oversight agencies have never mandated a maximum width for platform gaps that they could enforce. Instead, they have focused almost exclusively on allowing enough room for trains to pass through stations. 
 The only law setting a maximum gap is the federal <a href="/topics//Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990">Americans with Disabilities Act</a>, which calls for no more than 3 inches between the train and the platform at stations built after 1991. 
 But federal officials admit that a 3-inch gap is impossible for most commuter rails to achieve because it doesn't allow enough space for trains to pass. 
 Many commuter rails end up complying with the ADA through an exception in that law, which allows the use of bridge plates -- metal ramps that extend manually from train doors to platforms. 
 The U.S. Department of Transportation is considering new ADA regulations that would limit gaps at new stations to 10 inches on straight platforms and 13 inches on curved ones. 
 Platform problems 
 Curved platforms require extra space for trains to pass safely. In other words, they need a bigger gap. 
 Think of a square inside a circle. The corners are close to the circle's edge, while the straight sides are farther away. That's what a straight-sided train car looks like next to a curved platform. When laying track, engineers must leave enough space for each car's corners to pass unscathed. 
 When a platform curves the other way, engineers must ensure that the middle of the car doesn't scrape the platform. 
 An industry standard adopted in 1913 barred the construction of stations on sharp curves. The LIRR's worst gaps are on curved platforms that predate that rule: 151/2 inches at Flatbush and 14 inches at <a href="/topics/Syosset">Syosset</a>. 
 Of the LIRR's 125 stations, 50 are on a curve, McGowan said. The railroad has 264 platforms, of which 150 are curved. 
 Of course, gaps occur on straight platforms, too. At straight platforms, obstructions on the rails -- such as a grade crossings, where streets cross the tracks -- can force engineers to set tracks farther away from the platforms of nearby stations. 
 Ragged platform edges can worsen gaps on both curved and straight platforms. This factor contributed to a 133/4-inch gap on the straight platform at <a href="/topics/Shea_Stadium">Shea Stadium</a>, according to LIRR officials. In August, maintenance crews shifted the track up to 41/2 inches closer to the platform, the railroad said. 
 Vertical gaps 
 While much attention has focused on horizontal gaps, the vertical distance between a train door and the platform can also pose a problem, tripping up passengers and increasing the risk of falls. A Newsday measurement at <a href="/topics//Port_Jefferson,_NY">Port Jefferson</a> station in October, for example, found a 15-inch horizontal gap compounded by a vertical gap of 6 inches. 
 Settling of tracks or platforms causes some of the worst vertical gaps, forcing riders to step up or down when they get on or off the train. 
 The following are other factors affecting vertical gaps: 
 On a banked curve, one side of the train sits higher than the other, tipping the door above or below the surface of the platform. 
 Train wheels wear down by 2 inches in diameter before they must be replaced. Trains ride high on new wheels, then sink as the wheels age. 
 A train's suspension system, which uses air bags, also varies by a couple of inches, depending on how much the bags are inflated.

nyg-liprob0119

How the gap problem all started

The <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a>'s parent agency knew that education wasn't enough. 
 State authorities didn't set a maximum gap width. 
 Federal officials didn't keep track of gap injuries, even as hundreds of passengers were hurt from falls each year. 
 And no one fixed the gap. 
 While the <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> works to reduce its dangerously wide platform gaps in the wake of Natalie Smead's death, a review of authorities who could have intervened reveals a void of oversight and regulation of the number one cause of customer accidents on the nation's busiest commuter railroad. 
 "Just because we adhere to the law doesn't mean we don't have a problem," said <a href="/topics/MTA">MTA</a> board member Mitchell Pally, who sits on the <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a>/LI Bus Committee. "People are being injured and in one unfortunate circumstance, one girl was killed." 
 On Aug. 5, Smead slipped through a gap at Woodside station, then crawled under a platform and into the path of an oncoming train. 
 A state investigation into her death found that the railroad was in compliance with all state and federal laws. 
 However, government oversight agencies have never mandated an enforceable maximum width for platform gaps. Instead, they have focused almost exclusively on allowing enough room for trains to pass through stations. 
 Federal officials now are considering new regulations that would limit platform gaps at new stations to 10 inches on straight platforms and 13 inches on curved platforms. 
 <a href="/topics//MTA">MTA</a> oversight 
 While state and federal agencies left platform gaps to the discretion of railroads, the LIRR's parent agency, the <a href="/topics/Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a>, failed to inform the LIRR about techniques the MTA knew could eliminate a serious hazard to riders. 
 In 1987, the MTA's Inspector General investigated problem gaps on the Metro-North Railroad after having discovered similar problems on a <a href="/topics/New_York">New York</a> City subway line. The study, which found that gap problems could not be solved by education alone, advised Metro-North to: identify and fix problem gaps and take gaps into consideration in all major construction or repair projects. 
 Metro-North implemented those recommendations, but the MTA never imposed them on the LIRR, according to Metro-North and LIRR officials. 
 MTA and LIRR officials also for at least two decades received monthly and annual commuter surveys including many angry passenger complaints about dangerous gaps. 
 Compiled by the LIRR Commuters Council -- a railroad advisory group -- the reports included comments such as, "Put something at each door so there isn't such a big gap," and, "The gap between the platform and train in <a href="/topics//Syosset,_NY">Syosset</a> is scary, much too wide." 
 In November, MTA Chairman <a href="/topics/Peter_Kalikow">Peter Kalikow</a>'s testimony before a state Assembly committee underlined the parent agency's underestimation of the gap problem. "Prior to the incident we had, I think it was over the summer, they never reached the serious stage," <a href="/topics//Peter_Kalikow">Kalikow</a> testified. 
 Yet since the mid-90s, the gap had appeared as one of the top three causes of LIRR customer accidents in annual safety reports the railroad provided to MTA board members sitting on the LIRR/LI Bus Committee. 
 A review of LIRR accident records shows that, with the exception of 2002, gaps were the number one cause of customer accidents during the 51/2 years before Smead's death. 
 Kalikow went on to say that, "Where a station is built on a straight piece of track, those platforms are great. When they're built behind a curved piece of track, they're not great." 
 According to the LIRR's own measurements, gaps on straight platforms stretch up to 13.75 inches -- a space as large as a man's size 15 shoe. 
 State and federal monitoring 
 The <a href="/topics//Federal_Railroad_Administration">Federal Railroad Administration</a> is responsible for monitoring all commuter railroads, including tracking rider accidents nationwide. 
 But while the FRA requires railroads to specify whether customer accidents involved bees, spiders or reptiles, it does not have a category for gap falls. As a result, the administration has no reliable statistics on gap accidents. 
 "As for why it's not a category, basically when I asked around, the answer was, 'We don't know,'" DeDe Cordell, an FRA spokeswoman, said of the agency not tracking gap falls. 
 She said that the FRA now is conducting a review of the gap issue. 
 <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a> State law does not directly address platform gaps but sets a minimum distance between the center of the tracks and the platform -- allowing for freight trains to pass safely. The corresponding platform gap varies, depending on the width of the train. 
 "In theory, it does make sense that you would have a maximum gap and make provisions that if you exceed the maximum, you take certain measures," said Gerry Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuters Council. "That kind of legislation only gets passed if you have people pushing for it." 
 But many railroad experts said regulatory bodies can't set a gap maximum because sharp curves and other obstacles sometimes necessitate very wide spaces. 
 But if state and federal regulations don't call for maximums, neither do they require railroads to provide assistance for crossing wide spaces. 
 State officials, citing the continuing investigations, declined to comment on the absence of regulation or the possibility of new policy recommendations.

ny-liresp0119

Lack of oversight led to gap problem

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 <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> Rail Road's platform gaps. 
 At its inaugural meeting in September, the Passenger Safety Working Group[ 
 CORRECTION: The <a href="/topics//Federal_Railroad_Administration">Federal Railroad Administration</a> task force studying the issue 
 of platform gaps is called the General Passenger Safety Task Force. A <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a> 
 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 <a href="/topics//National_Transportation_Safety_Board">National Transportation Safety Board</a> 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 <a href="/topics/New_Hyde_Park">New Hyde Park</a> 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 <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> 
 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.

LIGAP05

Federal effort to bridge gap

An Islip fire marshal warned the town of serious fire 
 hazards at MacArthur Airport more than two years ago, but Islip officials did 
 not begin addressing the problems until they became public in June, records 
 show. 
 In addition, more than a year ago, state officials raised concerns about 
 the lack of fire sprinklers in the terminal outside a new airport restaurant, 
 T.G.I. Friday's. But the town allowed the restaurant to open anyway. 
 Islip officials recently released hundreds of pages of records first 
 requested by <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a> last November and May. Among them were office memos 
 showing that then-Town Fire Marshal Matthew Curtis repeatedly called attention 
 to fire-safety problems, ranging from misplaced sprinklers to an inadequate 
 fire alarm system at the airport. There are no records of any responses to his 
 memos. 
 Town Supervisor Eric Hofmeister said he didn't know why there were no 
 responses. The commissioner who got the memos, John Scimeca, no longer works 
 for the town and did not return calls for comment. 
 Curtis, who also left the town, declined to comment. 
 Both men reported to then-Town Attorney Vincent Messina, now in private 
 practice. Messina said he never saw the memos. 
 As for fire safety at the airport, Hofmeister said, "We've had our code 
 inspectors and our fire marshals out there reviewing the whole airport, and we 
 are coming up with an issues list that we need clarifications on." 
 The town-owned airport, a regional transportation hub in <a href="/topics//Ronkonkoma,_NY">Ronkonkoma</a> that 
 last year had more than 1 million people pass through it, has been undergoing 
 an $82 million expansion by <a href="/topics/Southwest_Airlines">Southwest Airlines</a> since 2003. 
 Problems reported in Newsday - such as cracks in the newly constructed 
 airport apron, fire hazards and possible financial irregularities - have 
 prompted federal, state and local investigations. 
 Councilman Christopher Bodkin, who has been the town board's liaison to the 
 airport since 1993, did not return calls for comment. 
 On April 6, 2004, a daily engineer's diary written by an employee of Cashin 
 Associates, a <a href="/topics//Hauppauge,_NY">Hauppauge</a> engineering firm hired to oversee the construction, 
 noted that unnamed town personnel "expressed concerns" about putting fire 
 sprinklers in electrical distribution rooms, according to the records. The 
 records show Curtis visited the airport that day. 
 Sprinklers near electrical panels are considered dangerous because water 
 could cause electricity to arc. 
 A week later, a Cashin employee also objected to the sprinklers and said a 
 dry fire-suppression system must be used instead, according to the records. 
 Then, on April 28, 2004, Curtis wrote a memo to Scimeca, pointing out that 
 sprinklers "shall not be installed in a space where the discharge of water 
 could be hazardous." 
 Despite the objections, sprinklers were installed in the main electrical 
 control room. 
 Curtis also pointed out that air intake vents in the new Southwest terminal 
 were located directly above the main natural gas pipes. 
 In June, <a href="/topics/Suffolk">Suffolk</a> County District Attorney <a href="/topics//Thomas_Spota">Thomas Spota</a> disclosed that his 
 office, which is investigating the airport, had found fire hazards, including 
 the location of the natural gas pipes and the sprinklers in the main electrical 
 control room. 
 Town officials have said that the airport is safe and that it complied with 
 "all applicable codes" during construction. 
 In fact, officials from the <a href="/topics/New_York">New York</a> Department of State had told the town 
 that the airport was not in compliance with state code, according to records 
 obtained by Newsday. 
 In an April 6, 2005 letter to the town, assistant regional director W. Roy 
 Scott said the fact that the T.G.I. Friday's restaurant had sprinklers was not 
 enough to make it legal. Sprinklers are required in the terminal as well so 
 that diners fleeing a fire would be protected. 
 Town Engineer Steve Rizzo responded that an earlier variance granted by the 
 state allowed the construction of the restaurant. 
 A year later, in a May 16 letter, Scott made clear that the variance in 
 fact did not grant that. Hofmeister said the town fire marshals were 
 "reviewing" the situation. 
 MacArthur timeline 
 July 6, 2006 - Islip town officials are unable to locate records to prove 
 fire inspections were done at MacArthur Airport. 
 June 30 - Newsday reports work had not begun on a $1 million ventilation 
 system upgrade that had been approved a year earlier. 
 June 26 - U.S. Sen. <a href="/topics/Charles_Schumer">Charles Schumer</a> asks the U.S. attorney general to look 
 into the funding of MacArthur Airport's expansion to determine whether 
 taxpayers were cheated. <a href="/topics//Chuck_Schumer">Schumer</a> was reacting to Newsday reports that federal, 
 state and Islip Town records showed that $65.2 million in public money was 
 being spent to fund the expansion. 
 June 21 - Islip officials say the airport is safe. 
 June 20 - <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> district attorney says inspection of expansion projects 
 at MacArthur Airport has uncovered fire risks that need immediate correction; 
 the hazards are so significant that they could cause an explosion or allow 
 dangerous natural gas to be drawn into the terminal, the DA says. 
 June 9 - Newsday reports that cracks posing a potential safety hazard to 
 airplanes are present on the newly constructed apron where planes pull up 
 outside the expanded <a href="/topics//Southwest_Airlines">Southwest Airlines</a> terminal.

LIAIR01

Warnings ignored

The following&nbsp; is the <a href="/topics//Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a>'s statement about the gap issue: "Safety is the <a href="/topics//MTA">MTA</a> <a href="/topics/Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a>'s first priority. Our focus in this area has reduced customer accidents 50 percent over the last decade. Yet even one accident is one too many. When an accident occurs on Railroad property, it is thoroughly investigated and actions taken to prevent a recurrence. "The LIRR is working closely and cooperatively with federal and state railroad oversight agencies as they review concerns about the gap between trains and platforms and prepare to issue gap-related safety recommendations. "However, the LIRR is already taking actions to minimize the gap through track resurfacing, or re-alignment, where it is feasible. Railroad Engineering Department forces recently raised and shifted track at twenty-one stations in order to reduce the size of the gap at those locations. We continue to identify other stations where track resurfacing can help minimize the gap. At twelve stations, we have employed other measures&nbsp; --&nbsp; edgeboards have been installed to the face of the platform at some stations; at others we have shifted platform slabs to reduce the gap. 'Watch the Gap' warning messages are also being stenciled on LIRR station platforms. "On another front, research and development is in progress to determine potential long-term measures, which could include the use of gap fillers or other devices. "In an on-going effort to raise customer awareness of the gap, LIRR employees have developed a new gap-warning sign, which uses a pictograph to more clearly demonstrate the need to step over the gap. This sign was installed at <a href="/topics/Shea_Stadium">Shea Stadium</a> prior to the playoff games due to the record crowds anticipated, and has also been installed at other stations, such as Penn Station, Flatbush, <a href="/topics/Jamaica">Jamaica</a>, Woodside, <a href="/topics//Syosset,_NY">Syosset</a> and Lawrence. A newly designed pictograph, by a recognized expert in iconography, will be installed at all LIRR stations and will replace the existing 'Watch the Gap' decal on LIRR passenger trains. "A video with helpful tips on gap safety was produced and made available on the LIRR's Web site. It can be viewed at <a href="http://www.mta.info/lirr/safety" target="0">www.mta.info/lirr/safety</a>. "Other elements of the stepped-up customer education effort include: a new 'Watch the Gap' brochure, a bi-lingual (Spanish-English) 'Watch the Gap' flyer, and posters installed on trains and at stations. "The new 'Watch the Gap' brochure highlights safety procedures for boarding and exiting trains&nbsp; --&nbsp; advising customers to step carefully over the gap; to hold children's hands when exiting or entering the train; to use extra caution when navigating gaps at curved platforms; and to always keep a safe distance from the edge of the platform. The train and station posters and the bi-lingual flyer echo this important safety message. "While we have successfully reduced customer accidents in the last ten years, we continue to strive for further improvement. The safety of our customers remains our number one concern."

nyg-liword0118

LIRR statement about the gap issue

A former state senator became the latest victim of a 
 <a href="/topics//Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> gap yesterday, breaking her ankle in a fall between a 
 train and platform at Lawrence station. 
 "I went to step off the train and I stepped into that notorious gap," said 
 Carol Berman, 82 [CORRECTION: Carol Berman, a former state senator, is 83. Her 
 age was incorrect in a story Friday about injuries she suffered Thursday when 
 she fell through a gap at the Long Island Rail Road station in Lawrence. See 
 related story on A4. PG. A11 ALL 9/30/06], in a phone interview from her Far 
 Rockaway hospital room. "I went down and yelled for help and everybody came 
 running." 
 Berman, who was in stable condition last night at St. John's Episcopal 
 Hospital South Shore, is scheduled for surgery today on her ankle, which she 
 said was broken in two places. Her ribs also were hurt but she said last night 
 she did not know if they were broken. 
 Berman, of Lawrence, said railroad staff responded immediately and held her 
 hand until she was pulled to safety, but she had harsh words for <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> 
 officials, who recently have come under fire for wide platform gaps: "You 
 better get this thing fixed before more people get hurt," Berman said. "It's 
 outrageous." 
 The <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a>, as well as state and federal officials, are investigating the 
 LIRR's wide gaps after a gap-related death last month and a Newsday 
 investigation that found gaps as wide as 15 inches - twice the railroad's 
 standard. 
 The gap on the platform where Berman fell is about 10 inches, according to 
 a Newsday measurement. 
 "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Ms. Berman for a full recovery," said 
 LIRR spokesman Sam Zambuto. "We are working very closely with [investigators] 
 on their review of the gap concerns and we are working on both short- and 
 long-term solutions to the gap issue." 
 Berman fell 4 feet onto the tracks while stepping off a <a href="/topics//Far_Rockaway,_NY">Far Rockaway</a>-bound 
 train at about 4 p.m., Zambuto said. The sun blinded her as she stepped off, 
 Berman said. 
 The train from Flatbush, which had been scheduled to arrive in Far Rockaway 
 at 4:06 p.m., remained stationary until she was pulled to safety, LIRR 
 spokesman Sam Zambuto said. 
 Natalie Smead, 18, of <a href="/topics/Minnesota">Minnesota</a>, was struck and killed by a train at 
 Woodside station on Aug. 5 after she fell through a gap and crawled underneath 
 the platform to the tracks on the other side, where she was hit by a train. On 
 Sept. 6, 4-year-old Brittany Walker fell through a gap as she tried to step 
 onto an LIRR train at Penn Station. She was not seriously hurt. 
 Berman, a <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrat</a>, represented the 9th District in the state <a href="/topics//U.S._Senate">Senate</a> from 
 1978 to 1984. She is known for her leadership of the Anti-Jet Noise coalition, 
 which opposed the operation of supersonic aircraft at <a href="/topics//John_F._Kennedy_International_Airport">Kennedy Airport</a>. She also 
 served as commissioner of the state board of elections. 
 Berman, who rides the LIRR into the city about twice a week, said she has 
 never had trouble stepping over a gap before. "I always step very carefully to 
 avoid it but the sun was so blinding," she said. 
 At Lawrence station yesterday evening, passengers said the gap poses a risk 
 to children and the elderly. 
 "The few times that I take my kids to work with me, I'm very careful," said 
 commuter Joshua Wanderer, 41, of Lawrence. Staff writer Denise M. Bonilla 
 contributed to this report.

LIGAP29

A platform plunge

"Watch the gap." 
 Riding the <a href="/topics//Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> these days, you can't miss the message 
 repeated on trains, in stations and on ticket machine screens. 
 "I must have heard it five times this morning," <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County <a href="/topics//MTA">MTA</a> board 
 member Mitch Pally said at an <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a>/ <a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> Bus committee meeting yesterday 
 on his commute from <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County to <a href="/topics/Manhattan">Manhattan</a>. Railroad officials met to 
 give an update on steps to address dangerously wide platform gaps [CORRECTION: 
 Because of an editing error, the purpose of a Wednesday <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a>/<a href="/topics//Long_Island,_NY">Long Island</a> Bus 
 committee meeting was mischaracterized in a story yesterday. Railroad and bus 
 officials gathered for a regularly scheduled committee meeting. They did not 
 meet to give an update on steps to address wide platform gaps. PG. A19 ALL 
 9/22/06]. 
 They, along with state and federal officials, are investigating gaps 
 between <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a> trains and platforms after a gap-related death last month and a 
 Newsday investigation that found gaps as wide as 15 inches - twice the 
 railroad's standard. 
 Natalie Smead, a <a href="/topics/Minnesota">Minnesota</a> teenager, was struck and killed by a train on 
 Aug. 5 after she slipped through the gap on to the tracks, crawled underneath 
 the platform to the tracks on the other side and was hit by a train at the 
 Woodside station. And on Sept. 6, Brittany Walker, 4, fell through a gap as she 
 tried to step onto an LIRR train at Penn Station. She was not seriously hurt. 
 At least 60 LIRR passengers per year have gap-related accidents - the 
 second-highest cause of injury on the rail line, officials said. 
 LIRR acting president Ray Kenny said: "We're looking at it in terms of what 
 we can do immediately, what can be done in the short term and what can be done 
 in the long term." 
 The railroad's immediate measures include an aggressive rider education 
 campaign and more alert train crews, he said.

Ad campaign targets gaps

Parents who ride the <a href="/topics//Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> said yesterday 
 that they hold their children tightly when boarding and exiting trains, but the 
 railroad should do more to prevent falls such as that of 4-year-old Brittany 
 Walker, who slipped through a gap Wednesday at Penn Station. 
 "It's not enough to warn people," Joyce Novick, 49, of <a href="/topics/Jericho2">Jericho</a>, said at 
 <a href="/topics//Hicksville,_NY">Hicksville</a> station. "You worry about it and you hold on tight." 
 Christine Kim, 43, waited for a train at Hicksville station with her son, 
 Alex, 6. 
 "I always hold his hand," Kim said. "I say, 'Be careful. Hold on to Mommy.'" 
 At Penn Station yesterday on Track 18 - where Brittany fell while boarding 
 a train to Huntington - a <a href="/topics//Babylon,_NY">Babylon</a>-bound train chugged to a stop shortly before 
 3 p.m., leaving gaps from 6 inches to more than a foot between the train and 
 the slightly curved platform. 
 Newsday measured five spots along the track yesterday afternoon, finding 
 the largest space - just over 12 inches - at the back of the train, where the 
 platform curves most noticeably. Near the front and middle of the train, the 
 gaps measured between 6 and 8 inches. 
 Some passengers at Penn Station yesterday, even those riding other rail 
 lines such as <a href="/topics/New_Jersey">New Jersey</a> Transit, said the latest incident spooked them. 
 Brittany was rescued with only minor injuries. 
 "It's a little scary," said Simone Butler of <a href="/topics/Montclair">Montclair</a>, N.J., who carried 
 her 16-month-old daughter Isabella in one arm and a stroller in the other. "I 
 had never thought about that as a possibility before." 
 But Sheila Hernandez, 43, of <a href="/topics//Roosevelt,_NY">Roosevelt</a>, who came off a train with her 
 6-year-old son, Kaymal Branham, said, "It doesn't bother me a bit. We've been 
 boarding those trains forever. Just so long as you hold onto your child, you're 
 fine."

LILIRR08

Parents say LIRR should do more to plug gaps

A 4-year-old girl fell 4 feet onto the tracks through a 
 gap between the platform and an <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> train in Penn Station yesterday afternoon 
 just before it was set to leave. 
 Police sources said the girl's name is Britney Walker. 
 She slipped through the gap at 4:30 p.m. as she and her family boarded the 
 4:31 p.m. Huntington-bound train, but <a href="/topics//Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> officials said she 
 was quickly scooped out of danger by <a href="/topics//Metropolitan_Transportation_Authority">Metropolitan Transportation Authority</a> 
 police after they were alerted by witnesses. 
 "They need to fix these," the girl's mother, Terrian Walker, told WCBS-TV. 
 "They really do. A lot of people are going to get hurt by these." 
 The Walkers moved to the area three months ago from Jackson, Miss., because 
 their home was destroyed by <a href="/topics//Hurricane_Katrina">Hurricane Katrina</a>. 
 Walker said she and her husband lost sight of Britney as the family got on 
 the train at Track 18. 
 Susan McGowan, a Long Island Rail Road spokeswoman, said the girl was taken 
 to <a href="/topics//Bellevue_Hospital">Bellevue Hospital Center</a> in <a href="/topics/Manhattan">Manhattan</a> for observation, but she suffered 
 only a few scratches. 
 The accident comes as the <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a> fields a torrent of criticism in the four 
 weeks since a tourist, 18-year-old Natalie Smead of <a href="/topics/Minnesota">Minnesota</a>, fell through a 
 gap at the Woodside station and was fatally struck by a train when she crawled 
 to the other side of the platform in an attempt to climb up. 
 The Aug. 5 incident, followed by a <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a> survey of some platforms that 
 found at least one gap measuring 15 inches in the <a href="/topics//Syosset,_NY">Syosset</a> station, prompted 
 LIRR officials to launch their own study in conjunction with National 
 Transportation Safety Board officials. 
 McGowan said the size of the gap that the young girl fell through yesterday 
 was unavailable, but that it has become a subject of the LIRR's ongoing 
 inquiry into the problem. 
 State Sens. <a href="/topics//Dean_Skelos">Dean Skelos</a> (R-<a href="/topics//Rockville_Centre,_NY">Rockville Centre</a>) and <a href="/topics//Nicholas_Spano">Nicholas Spano</a> (R-<a href="/topics//Yonkers,_NY">Yonkers</a>) 
 announced still another study with <a href="/topics/New_York">New York</a> State Department of Transportation 
 Commissioner Tom Madison. 
 "It just shows that even with all of the signs that say 'Mind the gap,' 
 that you can't do enough," said Jerry Bringmann, chairman of LIRR Commuter's 
 Council. 
 "Thank God we averted a tragedy today."

LIGAP07

Girl, 4, falls into gap

The recent death of a <a href="/topics/Minnesota">Minnesota</a> teenager on the tracks of a 
 <a href="/topics//Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> station in <a href="/topics/Queens">Queens</a> - already under scrutiny by local and 
 state officials - now has the attention of the federal government. 
 "We do have an investigator that is in <a href="/topics/New_York">New York</a> looking into the cause of 
 the accident on the Long Island Rail Road on Aug. 5," National Transportation 
 Safety Board spokesman <a href="/topics//Terry_Williams">Terry Williams</a> said last night. 
 Natalie Smead, 18, was killed at the Woodside Station after she fell 
 through the space between the train and platform and was hit by an oncoming 
 train after crawling under the platform. Recent reviews of gap widths by 
 Newsday show the gap is as much as 15 inches wide at some LIRR stations. 
 The <a href="/topics//National_Transportation_Safety_Board">National Transportation Safety Board</a> is an independent federal agency 
 that investigates plane crashes and other civil transportation accidents. 
 There are two <a href="/topics//New_York_(state)">New York</a> State Department of Transportation investigations 
 under way related to the accident and other safety issues on the LIRR and 
 Metro-North Railroad. LIRR officials also have begun a separate census of gap 
 widths at all 124 LIRR stations. Results of that is not expected until the end 
 of the year. 
 The LIRR also has stepped up a public awareness campaign and is looking 
 into installing movable platforms at problem stations to fill the gap.

LINTSB24

NTSB to probe teen's death at LIRR

Four-year-old Brittany Walker fell completely through a gap at a <a href="/topics//Long_Island_Rail_Road">Long Island Rail Road</a> station. Robert M. Garren, 38, of Flushing, fell up to his hip, and Patricia Freeman, 64, of <a href="/topics/Manhattan">Manhattan</a>, fell up to her elbows. Commuter rails across the country and internationally have grappled with ways to achieve smaller gaps to prevent these kinds of falls. At the same time, they are constantly mindful of leaving enough space for trains to safely operate at stations. Trying to do both simultaneously is especially challenging at stations with curved platforms. Gaps must be larger at those stops to prevent rectangular train cars from striking curved platforms. National industry standards and state railroad laws in many states set a minimum distance between platforms and tracks; this results in different minimum gaps for different railroads, depending on the width of the trains in use. The <a href="/topics//Federal_Railroad_Administration">Federal Railroad Administration</a>, which monitors the 20 commuter rail systems around the country, notes that minimum gap standards for different systems range from 4 inches to 13 inches. The agency would not identify which rail lines had those standards. The <a href="/topics/LIRR">LIRR</a> has a minimum standard of 8 inches for straight platforms, which is based on the distance from the center of the track to the platform. A minimum is necessary to allow bigger freight trains to safely pass.The railroad administration last year began discussions on setting a new maximum standard for newer stations, with the aim of making railroads more accessible to the disabled, a spokeswoman said. Now, the only national maximum-gap standard is 3 inches, set by the <a href="/topics//Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990">Americans with Disabilities Act</a>. The ADA standard, in effect for stations built after 1991, is now under review because it doesn't give enough clearance on commuter lines. System-wide accounting Starting in late summer, the <a href="/topics//LIRR">LIRR</a> took measurements at all its stations after the August death of Natalie Smead, 18, who fell through the gap at the Woodside station and was struck by an oncoming train. Before Smead's death, the railroad had not compiled a systemwide accounting of gap measurements. Yesterday, LIRR acting president Ray Kenny announced that about 100 of the railroad's 262 platforms at passenger stations need work to address gap problems. Of the 40 stations the LIRR measured for federal investigators from Sept. 5 to 12, 17 had gaps that were 10 inches or wider. Since those measurements were taken in September, the railroad has moved tracks and platforms or added edgeboards to platforms at more than two dozen stations to reduce gaps. Work has been done at 13 of the 40 stations where the LIRR took measurements, so the gaps at those 13 stations may be narrower now than they were in September. Examining busiest stations On Dec. 5 and 6, <a href="/topics/Newsday">Newsday</a> measured the railroad's 20 busiest stations, which account for 73 percent of daily ridership, and also found numerous wide gaps, including one at <a href="/topics//Syosset,_NY">Syosset</a> that measured 131/2 inches. Using a Stanley tape measure, reporters started at the outermost edge of the platform and measured horizontally to the lip of the doorstep while the train was stopped. In places where workers had installed wooden edgeboards to close the gap, measurements were taken from the end of the board. Newsday obtained a copy of measurements LIRR officials took at the 40 stations in September. It is unclear how those 40 stations were chosen, though they serve 76.7 percent of daily ridership, according to the LIRR. LIRR employees rode non-passenger trains to the 40 stations. An LIRR employee at each door used folding rulers to measure the gaps from the outermost edge of the platform horizontally to the lip of the door when the trains stopped at stations. The LIRR figures detail which track, platform and door the measurements were taken from, as well as where on the platforms they were taken and from what model of car. They also indicate the side of the car&nbsp; --&nbsp; north or south&nbsp; --&nbsp; and whether the station is straight or curved. Some of the findings from the LIRR measurements include: Out of 30 measurements taken at the <a href="/topics/Shea_Stadium">Shea Stadium</a> station, all were wider than the 8-inch LIRR minimum standard, with the widest 133/4 inches, taken on Platform A, Track 2. The platform is straight. All of the 12 measurements taken at the <a href="/topics//Greenvale,_NY">Greenvale</a> and <a href="/topics//Montauk,_NY">Montauk</a> stations were wider than 8 inches. Greenvale ranged from 9 inches to 111/2 inches and Montauk was between 91/4 inches to 93/4 inches. After 16 measurements were taken, <a href="/topics//Westbury,_NY">Westbury</a> was found to have only one gap that was larger than the 8-inch minimum. It measured 81/2 inches. Because the LIRR took measurements throughout each of the platforms and Newsday was only able to take a couple of measurements at each platform, it is difficult to compare the two sets of data to determine the impact of the quick, partial fixes the railroad has undertaken to reduce the gaps. Newsday's measurements were limited to only a couple at each station, and they were taken mainly during off-peak hours so as not to block the doors of trains and endanger passengers. Response to public outcry Newsday first started taking its own gap measurements three days after Smead's death, in part because the railroad would not release gap measurements. The newspaper's effort found gaps as wide as 15 inches. Measurements such as that found at Syosset set off a public outcry over large gaps throughout the rail system. Newsday then took measurements at stations where there was a gap fall or where commuters expressed concern. At 25 of the LIRR's 124 passenger stations, gaps ranged from 3 to 15 inches. Then on Dec. 5 and 6, Newsday reporters took measurements at the 20 busiest stations, as defined by the railroad's most recent ridership figures available from 1998, in order to get a better idea of the systemwide impact of gaps on LIRR passengers. In addition to the wide gap Newsday found at a curved platform at Syosset, Newsday measured gaps generally ranging from 31/2 inches to 10 inches at the Flatbush station. Toward one end of Track 5 at Flatbush, a sharp curve results in a nearly 13-inch gap. LIRR personnel at the station said they do not open train doors for the last two cars and ask riders to exit from another car.

ny-limeas0119

Pinpointing the problems

Investigating the Gap

Newsday

Long Island Rail Road gap - Syosset

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