Subway tragedies must be prevented
Re Randomness of subway push is chilling, June 20 There was another tragedy on the TTC tracks on Monday. A 66-year-old man jumped in front of a train at College station; he had his foot amputated and was also transported to the trauma unit at St. Michael’s Hospital, unconscious and with massive injuries. But that’s not the whole tragedy. That man is my brother. His beautiful wife of over 30 years knew her husband was deeply depressed and dangerously suicidal, and took him to emergency on Saturday after confirming that St. Michael’s has a psychiatric ward. He wasn’t coy — there, he clearly told the resident doctor he was going to kill himself. His wife asked for him to be admitted and her husband agreed.
Instead, the hospital sent him home with a list of phone numbers and a prescription, saying there wasn’t a bed available.
But now he’s in a bed, at an astronomical cost to our health-care system. And a shocking emotional cost to his family, the train driver, the witnesses on the platform and even the paramedics. We don’t know if he’ll live. St. Michael’s failed him on Saturday. His name is Steve. And we, his family, are now taking turns whispering messages of love into his soot-filled ears. Mary Galipeau, Toronto
A reasonable and low-tech solution would be to reduce the speed of subway cars as they enter the station, as is done in some European cities. If the train is going slowly, the risk of death and suicide attempts declines dramatically.
I am sure that to save lives and horrible trauma to TTC employees, Toronto riders would accept minor scheduling changes. It just takes the will to do it. Karen Quinton, Etobicoke
Here is a simple and inexpensive way to avoid such incidents.
Paint a wide red line parallel to the edge of the platform, about two metres away from the edge. Make an official rule that no passenger is to cross that line until the subway train has arrived, and fully stopped with its doors open.
As long as the rule is strictly enforced, no one should ever be close enough to the edge of the platform to be deliberately or inadvertently pushed onto the tracks. Javed Chaudry, Brampton