New York City subway worker dragged under train and killed near Herald Square station

NEW YORK — A New York City subway worker was dragged under a train and killed early Wednesday while serving in a role intended to help other workers stay safe while performing work on the tracks, officials said.

The fatal accident happened at about 12:15 a.m. just south of the Herald Square station in Manhattan that serves the area around the Macy's department store, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said.

The 57-year-old employee was working as a flagger when he somehow got dragged under a northbound D train, officials said. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“There was work taking place, scheduled work. The fellow was flagging, and it's very much still under investigation on what went wrong.” MTA Chair Janno Lieber said at a meeting of the MTA board's safety committee. “Our folks were at the hospital last night with the worker’s family. Obviously they’re very much in our thoughts right now.”

Flaggers are supposed to help promote safety by alerting oncoming train crews to track work further down the line.

NYC Transit President Rich Davey, who is in charge of the city's subways and buses, asked for a moment of silence for the fallen worker. “These are dangerous jobs that we ask our people to do day in and day out,” Davey said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to investigate the death.