NYC Subway train doors are a real danger

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Lately I’ve been commuting by NYC subway to work.  It’s been a pain figuratively speaking as well as literally.

This Friday morning, it was less crowded on the train station than on a regular weekday and people calmly were entering arrived train. I politely let people in front of me go and went in last. All of the sudden I felt like I blacked out for a millisecond as I felt this unexpected blow on the side of my head. It felt like being slammed into a brick wall and I almost fell down. Took me a second to realize that I was just hit by unexpectedly slammed train doors.

Don’t let the rubber edge and elevator like appearance fool you. These freaking human traps pack a heavy punch and close extremely fast. I’ve caught few blows to my shoulders before, it really hurts like a mother.  Unlike elevator doors, subway trains will also not open when obstacle is encountered. They will alert train operator who must re-open them remotely.

Another thing I noticed (just like this morning) that train operators are always in rush to close doors and sometimes don’t even check if all people entered the train.  I can kind of understand when this is happening during rush hours when people can no longer fit into the train car, but it was not the case this morning.

Something needs to be done! I can’t be the only one who feels this way. What would happen if instead of me it was a mother carrying infant. Doors can easily crush baby’s scull.  Why is there so much force in the closing mechanism?  I wrote a letter to MTA, if you feel the same way please write one as well.

Tags: #3 train, danger, doors, injury, mta, nyc, subway, transit