Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll look at train operators who are often left to fend for themselves after accidents involving the subway.
You’ve probably read about incidents involving the subway when someone fell onto the tracks — or, worse, was pushed — and was hit by a train. Maybe you’ve been on the platform when something like that happened. And then the trains started running again, as if everything had returned to normal. But did it? What about the person at the controls of the train? Many subway train operators struggle to cope with the aftermath of collisions — having nightmares or, after they go back to work, imagining people on the tracks in the darkness ahead. Isn’t help available? Three of my colleagues — Jonah Markowitz, Bianca Pallaro and Ana Ley — found that the subway system in New York trails systems in other cities in ensuring that employees use the resources it provides. Poor communication can be a factor. So can a bureaucracy that is difficult to navigate. And so can a culture that pressures train operators to shake off incidents and clock in again, even if they are not ready to return. Whatever the reason, records show that only 21 subway train operators contacted the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s employee assistance program in 2024. No reliable data was available on how many operators were grappling with the consequences of a train strike. Such data does not clearly indicate the reason behind every incident, and few are categorized as suicides. The New York Times’s investigation found that train strikes, as the M.T.A. calls collisions in which people are hit by subway trains, are more frequent than in any other transit system in the United States. More troubling, while train strikes have been decreasing elsewhere, they have increased in New York. In each of the last two years, according to The Times’s analysis of records from the Federal Transit Administration, the M.T.A. reported more than 250 train strikes, the most in a decade. In the first half of this year, more than 120 people were hit by subway trains in New York. The M.T.A.’s own policies require clinicians or chaplains to contact train operators within two hours of a train strike, and experts say the best way to head off post-traumatic stress disorder is by getting people treatment within 24 hours. But more than half of the train drivers interviewed by The Times said they had not heard from a clinician. And some employees declined help because they did not want to be seen as weak, debilitated and no longer fit for their jobs. Edwin Guity, 32, who was at the controls of a southbound D train when it struck a man last December, said no one had told him that there was a way to receive treatment to help him cope. He said the M.T.A. had given him the option of going back to work. But a friend who had experienced something similar told him how to get help: first in a six-week program and then through a specialist who prescribed six months of exposure therapy that gradually reintroduced him to the subway. Reading about Guity brought to mind a story that I covered long ago. The circumstances were different: A Long Island Rail Road train hit a van that had driven around the crossing gates. The red-and-white gates were down, lights were flashing and a bell was ringing, all to stop drivers. The van was carrying 10 teenagers. Nine of them were killed. I can still hear the voice of the engineer, Thomas Cavanagh, when I spoke with him the day after the accident. “I’ve got two kids that age — they’re 20 and 21, one boy, one girl,” he said. “Do you know how that made me feel?” He said that after stopping the train, he climbed down from the locomotive. The only thought in his mind, he said, was that he hoped there was only one person in the van. But he saw several bodies on the ground. The Federal Railroad Administration cleared the L.I.R.R. of responsibility for the crash. But “my father was never the same after that,” his daughter, Jane Cavanagh, told me on Sunday. “Never.” Her father, who had 10 years of experience as an engineer when the accident happened in 1982, worked for the L.I.R.R. until he retired in the early 1990s. He died in 2016. “It changed my father,” she said. She did not know whether he had ever gone to therapy. “Back in that era,” she said, “therapy was a last resort for everyone.” He might have taken time off and therapy might have been suggested, she said, but “if it was talked about between my parents, the only thing I ever heard was, ‘Don’t you ever get in a car with someone who’s been drinking.’” WEATHER It will be partly sunny, with a high of 29 degrees. The evening will be mostly cloudy but will clear up as temperatures drop to 20 degrees. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING Suspended (Immaculate Conception). The latest Metro news
METROPOLITAN DIARY Stuck
Dear Diary: I had been laid off and was searching for free things to entertain myself with while looking for a job when I found out about the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. On an exquisite day, I took the bus there. I was just in time for a ranger-guided tour of the mud flats. I joined a group of about 10 other people. We proceeded on a trail through the preserve, past the water and past the birds feeding their babies. It was wonderful. “Now we’re heading toward the mud flats,” the ranger said over her shoulder. “Be careful where you step.” To my untrained eye, the terrain looked almost identical to what we had just been walking on. I tried to be careful, but suddenly I began to sink. I called out for help. Soon, I was stuck in the mud. The ranger stopped and came to where I was. As I tried to wriggle free, each movement actually caused me to sink in further. A man who appeared to be smaller than me emerged from the group and stood above me. “Don’t move,” he said. “Just put your arms around my neck. Don’t try to help.” I did as he said and tried to stay calm. Without a word, he put his arms under my arms and sort of threw himself backward. I came right out of the rubber boots I was wearing. As the man fell onto his back on firmer ground, I fell on top of him. I was embarrassed but also deeply grateful. I thanked him, and he said he was a retired fireman out for a walk, just hoping to be helpful. — Mary O’Connell Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Lauren Hard and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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