On the first anniversary of the electrocution death of a subway worker on the job in Queens, local and state labor leaders began a concerted effort yesterday to persuade the Pataki administration to adopt stronger safety standards for the city's 2,000 subway track workers.þþThe men and women who maintain subway tracks are the only railroad track workers in the state not covered by stringent Federal Railroad Administration safety rules, because the subway is considered an intracity rail system, unlike the PATH lines, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North, which go though several municipalities.þþAs a result, New York City Transit mostly operates under its own safety rules and those of the state's Department of Labor — rules that union leaders contend are weak in many areas, allowing situations in which workers have been struck by trains or been electrocuted or have narrowly escaped serious accidents.þþTransit union officials cited the death last July of Samuel McPhaul, a track worker who died apparently after falling onto the electrified third rail in Queens. The state's Labor Department is still investigating the death, but leaders with the Transport Workers Union, Local 100, have argued that it is likely that Mr. McPhaul, a track worker for nine years, tripped in a tunnel with inadequate lighting.þþUnion officials said that 18 track workers have died on the job since 1980, from electrocutions or being struck by trains, and that investigations by the state and New York City Transit have found that most of the deaths could have been prevented.þþThe union also described several situations in which serious accidents were narrowly avoided, including two incidents in the Joralemon tube, the tunnel beneath the East River that brings the Lexington line into Brooklyn. In both incidents, one in 2000 and another in 1998, trains were sent in the opposite direction without warning to track workers.þþBoth times workers scrambled to safety as a train sped by. But union leaders said the incidents pointed to the urgent need for safety rules that mirror those used by the federal government, which requires more extensive use of flaggers for oncoming trains, better lighting in tunnels, more precautions in dealing with the third rail and greater flexibility for workers to refuse to perform tasks they consider unsafe.þþÿThe bottom line is that workers in the subway, which carries more people than any other railroad in the state, have a lower level of protection than any other railroad workers,ÿ said John Samuelsen, the Local 100 official who represents track workers. ÿIt's sad.ÿ The transit union was joined yesterday by the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O. in calling for stronger safety standards.þþTom Kelly, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the parent agency of the subway system, declined to comment yesterday on the union's proposals.þþRob Lillpopp, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Labor, which must consider changes in subway safety regulations, said: ÿThis is new to us, but we're going to take a look at it.ÿþ
Source: NY Times
