MTA images
(New York, NY) – Just how safe ARE those new fare gates in the subways? Four new types of fare gates are being tested out at multiple subway stations to eventually replace turnstiles at nearly 200 stations by 2029.
A child’s head got caught in one on Tuesday, at the Broadway-Lafayette station. In a distressing video a little boy is seen screaming for help after his 5-year-old sister was caught in the door, and he was separated from his family. The girl’s head got stuck between the doors of the fare gate, and a bystander helped get the young girl out. She was taken to the hospital with head swelling.
Just days earlier a woman’s head got caught in a fare gate as she was rushing to catch a train at the Broadway/Lafayette station. An MTA worker on the other side of the gate was trying to pry the doors back open while she floundered helplessly, the doors clamping down on her neck.
One MTA employee explained that “this happens when two people try to get through the door together. The sensor picks that up and closes the door on the second person.” A technician at a Bronx station told “The New York Post” that the only way to free someone from the gate’s jaws is to shut off the automated door and open it manually.
MTA spokesperson Eugene Resnick told PIX11 News it is evaluating the performance of the new fare gates.
