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NEW YORK CITY — A spate of shoves, tumbles, gropings and attacks plagued subways across the city this week as officials quietly slowed a much-anticipated plan to test protective doors on three subway platforms.
At least five locals tumbled down to subway tracks across the city this week alone, including one who was shoved in random attacks, according to police.
The falls that cost two locals their lives — including a man in his 70s who lost his footing in Brooklyn — come as long-promised plans to install pilot safety doors on three station platforms seemingly stalled.
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Officials seemingly blew past their projected August target to award a $254 million contract to install and test protective doors in three stations in Manhattan and Queens — pushing the new contract date to December, according to a Capital Program Committee Meeting agenda.
In June, officials said the doors would hit three platforms in the “coming months” including: the Times Square 7 train, Third Avenue L train and Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue E train.
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“We’ve been calling for NYC to catch up to the rest of the world and install platform screen doors in the subway,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, tweeted in June. “Would be a major win for safety.”
Officials told the New York Post they were still seeking bids for the project, which would be paid for in part by congestion pricing.
The fatal tumble in Brooklyn was not the only terrifying fall this week. In Flatiron, a 37-year-old was fatally struck by a train after falling on the tracks Saturday night, police said.
And in Midtown, a man was fighting for his life after falling onto the tracks and being struck by a D train.
At the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall station, a man was rushed to the hospital after being shoved onto the tracks, but made out in stable condition.
Beyond the platform, New York City subways saw unhinged attacks all week long.
Three people were punched in the face in three separate instances this week, sending one man to the hospital with a brain bleed after his head hit a Q train leaving a Brooklyn station.
A pregnant woman in Queens was kicked in the stomach after an argument on the subway, and strangers pulled knives on two teenagers in Queens and the Upper West Side, police said.
Across the city, transit crimes — including all complaints and arrests within the transit system — increased slightly in October as compared to last year, police data show. But so far this year, transit crimes have dropped citywide by 4.1 percent.
In a discussion on New Yorkers’ life expectancy, Mayor Eric Adams set locals’ expectations for a safe subway system.
“You should expect safe streets and subways where you can go about your day without worry,” Adams said.
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