City transit officials failed to properly protect a subway worker when he was crushed to death by an oncoming train in 2016, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Louis Gray, 53, and a fellow New York City Transit employee had been dispatched to the tracks of the F train line in Brooklyn to provide protective lighting to guide contractors to a control room just west of the Fort Hamilton Parkway station when the incident occurred.
A train started barreling down on them, and both men tried to squeeze into a protective alcove but couldn’t fit, and Gray was killed, The Post reported at the time.
The NTSB investigation concluded that the tragedy was caused by the failure of supervisors in the agency’s Rail Control Center to inform train dispatchers that Gray’s team of “flagmen” would be on the tracks, the June 21 ruling says.
Transit officials further erred in not developing a risk-assessment strategy for flagging operations, according to the ruling.
The NTSB criticized subway leaders for not yet expanding a pilot program, begun on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue line in 2017, that tried out new, more cautious flagging practices. It involves holding service while flags are being set up, placing one flagman at the nearest station platform to alert train operators of their presence up ahead and transporting workers to flag locations by train.
That process is now underway, an MTA official told The Post.
“We’ve been working closely with the NTSB since this tragic accident occurred and have already implemented, or are in the process of implementing, their recommendations,” said agency spokesman Maxwell Young.