ll nonemergency track work in the New York City subway system was halted yesterday after the second worker in two days was struck and killed by a train in Manhattan.þþNew York City Transit called for the 24-hour freeze to conduct a review of safety procedures as transit union officials instructed track crews to stop all work, raising the specter of major delays. The worker, Kurien Baby, 57, was in a tunnel 100 feet south of the Canal Street station when a northbound E train hit him about 10:30 p.m. on Friday.þþThe cause of the accident was under investigation, police and transit officials said. Both Mr. Baby and a worker killed on Thursday, Joy Antony, were assigned to small cleaning-and-maintenance crews that did not have a member dedicated to flagging oncoming trains and alerting them to the crew's presence, union officials said.þþUnion officials also said both deaths could have been prevented had the transit agency followed its own guidelines and assigned a person to watch for trains while the workers were on the tracks.þþUsually, only large crews doing major repair work have someone assigned to watch for trains, they added, although Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, said each crew, no matter how small, should have a flagger.þþÿOur members are sent out to essentially dodge trains, dodge rails, and hope they come home at the end of the day,ÿ Mr. Toussaint said. ÿWhat we want to come out of this is we want no more deaths.ÿþþÿWe have had 20 fatalities in the past 20 years,ÿ he said. ÿNow we have two fatalities in the past 72 hours. We can't take this anymore.ÿþþPaul J. Fleuranges, a spokesman, released a statement from the New York City Transit president, Lawrence G. Reuter, announcing the suspension of routine maintenance until midday today, but he declined to comment on the union's criticism. Union officials said a meeting with transit officials was scheduled for 4 p.m. today.þþAfter learning late yesterday afternoon of the agency's decision to stop track work, a union spokesman, Dave Katzman, said: ÿI think it is evidence they are scrambling to cover their rear ends. One can only hope that in order to do so they will actually take our concerns on flagging seriously.ÿþþThe dispute comes as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the parent organization of the subway agency, faces a nearly $1.1 billion budget deficit. The authority plans to raise fares and perhaps cut service to close the gap, and is hoping to sell a fare increase as a necessity to keep trains safe. The city is in tense negotiations with the union over a new contract to replace the one that expires next month.þþMr. Baby was part of a five-member crew assigned to the cleaning and repair of fixtures, said Ricardo Figueroa, vice chairman of the Division of Line Equipment and Signals with Local 100, which represents subway workers. Mr. Baby was placing a flashing yellow light in the tunnel just south of the Canal Street station to warn train operators that workers were on the tracks when he was hit, Mr. Figueroa said. ÿA signal-maintenance man in the area saw the body,ÿ he said. ÿThe crew took a head count and noticed that Baby was missing.ÿþþRelatives and friends who gathered at the town house Mr. Baby shared with his wife in Queens Village said he was a dignified and hard-working man who had come to the United States from India in 1988 with his wife and two young sons. He had studied engineering in his home state, Kerala, relatives said, and had worked for the transit agency for 14 years.þþAnn John, a 26-year-old niece of Mr. Baby, said he was a meticulous man not prone to sloppiness, especially in his job.þþÿWhat he did was very dangerous, but he always went by the book,ÿ she said.þþMr. Antony, 41, a signal-maintenance worker, was killed as he worked on tracks near the 96th Street station on the No. 3 line.þþUnion officials said that although Mr. Baby was doing a different job than the one performed by Mr. Antony, the circumstances of both accidents were similar.þþMr. Antony was part of a two-man crew that was performing a routine test of a track circuit, said Henry Williams, a union official who said he was briefed on the details of the accident. While Mr. Antony was testing the circuit, a second man was working at the relay panel. A foreman was also nearby, Mr. Williams said, but was working on another test.þþNo one was on hand to signal to coming trains that a worker was on the tracks, Mr. Williams said. A southbound No. 3 train struck Mr. Antony at 11:19 a.m. Thursday.þþUnion officials said Mr. Baby, like Mr. Williams, was working without a person whose only job was to signal to trains that workers were present.þþAccording to an Oct. 21 letter obtained by The New York Times that was written by Cheryl E. Kennedy, vice president for the authority's Office of System Safety, to union officials, crews doing tests like the one Mr. Antony was performing must include a person whose sole job is to signal to oncoming trains that workers are on the tracks.þþ
Source: NY Times
