EAST HARLEM, Manhattan — An MTA worker fell to his death while clearing subway tracks in Manhattan, prompting several subway service changes and a chaotic Tuesday morning commute, officials said.
Police said the worker, a 23-year-old man, was clearing debris when he fell onto the tracks in the tunnels near the East 125th Street and Lexington Avenue station around 4:50 a.m. Police earlier said the worker had been struck by a train.
It remains unclear how far the man fell. Police said he fell 20 feet, but MTA President Andy Byford later said the distance was about 9 feet.
The worker was hospitalized with a serious head injuries, according to police. He later died.
The Transport Workers Union has released the following statement:
"This is a tragedy, not just for this young man and his family, but for the entire City. While millions of New Yorkers were asleep, this young transit worker was on the job in a tunnel beneath Manhattan so others could get to work or school or wherever else they need to go in the morning. We will be involved in a full investigation to determine how this tragedy happened. Our entire brotherhood and sisterhood of transit workers extend our condolences to his family."
The incident prompted service changes that caused a chaotic morning commute. Hundreds of people could be seen lined up down Lexington Avenue for hours, scrambling to get on a bus.
A woman told PIX11 she walked from the Bronx, only find find out the train she needed was not in service.
"It’s communication that’s the problem,” she said.
When asked what she thought of the MTA, she replied, "Today, it sucks."
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A worker making repairs to a subway tunnel in Manhattan was killed early Tuesday when he fell and injured his head, the police said.
The circumstances of the accident, which occurred just before 5 a.m. at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue inside the tunnel that carries the 4 and 5 trains, were not immediately known, the police said. Officers responding to a 911 call found the man unresponsive and lying on the southbound tracks with trauma to his head. The man, identified by the transit workers union as St. Clair Ziare Richards-Stephens, 23, of the Bronx, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr. Richards-Stephens appeared to have fallen from an elevated position within the tunnel area while working at the location, the police said. The investigation is ongoing.
“These are the days you dread,” Andy Byford, the president of New York City Transit, said in a statement. “There is a full investigation underway. We are appreciative of New Yorkers’ patience during this morning’s rush hour and for the caring they’re showing for our fallen colleague.”
The accident caused 6 train subway service to be suspended on the Lexington lines between 138th Street in the Bronx, south to 86th Street in Manhattan in both directions. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subways and buses, scrambled to fill the gaps left by the service suspensions at some of the city’s busiest stations.
All morning, chaotic scenes played out up and down Lexington Avenue as commuters convened on the streets outside the shut stations while transit workers on bullhorns directed them to waiting buses.
Just before 9 a.m. the trains were restored but extensive delays snarled the 4, 5 and 6 trains, which continued to bypass 125th Street.
Mr. Richards-Stephens had been employed by the M.T.A. for six months, Mr. Byford said. He had been working on removing debris from the track.
An M.T.A. safety inspection team was sent to the accident site on Tuesday morning, Mr. Byford said.
“People don’t come to work not to get home at night,” Mr. Byford said. “We pride ourselves on running a safe service and getting our employees home safely. That tragically hasn’t happened.”
Mr. Richards-Stephens’s death is the first track-worker fatality in two years. In 2016, Lewis Gray was killed after he was struck by a train while setting up safety flags on the track of the G train in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. In 2010, James Knell, a maintenance supervisor, was electrocuted while working on the A train tracks in the Rockaways in Queens.
As Tuesday’s commuters backed up all along the Lexington IRT and quickly choked the Seventh Avenue lines as riders shifted to alternate subways, the usual social media fury at the M.T.A. seemed tempered as customers learned over loud speakers about the tragic cause of the slowdown.
“This is a tragedy, not just for this young man and his family, but for the entire city. While everyone else was asleep, this young man was working in a tunnel beneath Manhattan so others could get to work, or school, or wherever else they need to go to,” Tony Utano, the president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, said in an email.
“We will be conducting an investigation to determine exactly happened and will assist the family in every way possible.”