Vol. 71/No. 21      May 28, 2007

Daniel Boggs, 41, was hit by a train April 24 in Manhattan. On April 29 Marvin Franklin, 55, was hit by a train in Brooklyn. Franklin had 22 years on the job.

Franklin was killed when a train scheduled to run on the local track was redirected to the express track, which his crew had been informed was closed. Franklin's supervisor instructed him and his partner Jeffrey Hill, 41, to retrieve a dolly on the other side of the active tracks. Hill was hospitalized for injuries. The New York Daily News reported that investigators believe Franklin did not hear the train approaching as he crossed the tracks because of the noise from a large generator powering construction lights nearby.

"We were doing exactly what we were ordered to do by our foreman," said Hill at Franklin's funeral, which was attended by hundreds of transit workers.

Boggs was part of a team setting up lanterns to warn train operators that crews were on the tracks for scheduled switch and rail replacements.

After Boggs was hit by the train, his fellow crew members pulled the lever at an emergency alarm box that should have cut off power to the high-voltage third rail. The lever didn't work, nor did the other alarm box crew members tried to activate. Some 70 such controls are now being tagged as inoperable and are supposed to be repaired.

Union members were outraged that the safety equipment had not been maintained. “A working alarm box is a matter of life and death,” said veteran track worker John Samuelson, according to the Daily News.

He said the number of workers whose duties include repairing emergency equipment has been reduced over the past five years. “It’s another case of a smart, production-minded boss playing Russian roulette with our lives,” Samuelson said.

Following Franklin’s death, the MTA bosses suspended all but emergency track work for four days.

Several union members spoke about the lack of job safety at a TWU news conference April 30. Percival Thomas, 52, said, “We have an atmosphere down there where we are doing more with less.” He called the bosses’ pressure to produce “tremendous,” with fewer workers than three years ago.

In an effort to defend the transit bosses, MTA spokesperson Paul Fleuranges said, “In the last 5 years we have had only 6 right-of-way fatalities," referring to track work. Twenty-seven transit workers have been killed on the job since 1980. Between 2003 and 2006, there were 98 reported "near-misses" in subway tunnels and along elevated tracks.
 
 
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