New rule aids track crew safety

THE MTA HAS agreed to tighten track safety rules after a worker setting up warning lanterns for a construction project was fatally struck by a G train in Brooklyn last month.

Under the new rules, train traffic will be stopped when transit workers are placing work-zone lights on a curve or on a stretch of track without space to find refuge from a passing train.

Transport Workers Union Local 100 pushed for the change.

“This is a big win for the safety of New York City transit workers,” Local 100 President John Samuelsen said. “Past efforts to get the company to simply slow down the trains were extremely difficult. Now, service must be completely suspended and that is unprecedented.”

The MTA agreed to the bolstered safety rules after the union brought the issue of into emergency arbitration. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the death of construction flagger Louis Gray on Nov. 3. The MTA suspended work immediately after the accident as a precaution and also halted work a week later while bosses clarified rules already in place. “MTA’s only goal is ensuring track worker safety,” said agency spokeswoman Beth DeFalco. “We are halting track work temporarily so that we can go back and reiterate safety procedures to employees regarding flagging.” Gray, 53, was working on a curved set of tracks near the Church Ave. station when a G train came around a bend and struck him and his partner. That train’s operator had no idea the pair was ahead and was unable to stop, the union said.