Teen’s Third Rail Death Comes As MBTA Moves Ahead With Platform Screen Door Pilot Program
The MBTA is moving ahead with plans to try out new platform barriers at one of its stations – a station improvement that could prevent the kinds of accidents that killed a 19-year old rider in Forest Hills station this weekend.
According to MBTA transit police, two 19-year-olds were on the Orange Line platform at Forest Hills station around 1 p.m. on Saturday when one of them lost her balance and fell onto the tracks.
Police say that when her companion tried to help her up, he fell on the electrified third rail and died. Transit Police also reported that the woman who initially fell had been hospitalized, but they did not have information about her current condition.
Family members have since identified the victim as Frankey Wright, Jr., and said that he was visiting Boston with his girlfriend to attend Saturday’s Caribbean Festival in Franklin Park. His family has set up a GoFundMe page to cover his funeral expenses.
Safety barriers under consideration
While passengers falling from platforms onto the tracks is a relatively rare incident, million-in-one accidents should be expected in a subway system that gets nearly one million daily riders.
Earlier this year, the MBTA issued a “request for information” to investigate the possibility of installing new platform barriers that could, according the MBTA’s bid documents, “safely, reliably, and effectively (screen) transit passengers from unintentionally entering the pit area of station platforms when trains are not physically present at the station.”
Platform screen door systems put a glass wall between the boarding platforms and train tracks, with sliding doors that align with train doors and open only when a train is docked in the station.
They’re increasingly common in newer transit systems around the world, including New York City’s AirTrain system and Montreal’s new driverless REM light-rail line. In addition to safety benefits, the systems have several operational benefits, like preventing garbage from accumulating on the tracks.
MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo told StreetsblogMASS that the T received 8 responses to its request for information earlier this summer.
Based on that feedback, the agency is now developing a more formal “request for proposals” (RFP) for a pilot installation of platform barriers at a yet-to-be determined Orange Line or Red Line station.
“The pilot will be used to observe a platform barrier’s integration with MBTA infrastructure and evaluate the capabilities and operational effectiveness of such a barrier in the subway system,” Pesaturo told StreetsblogMASS.
Pesaturo added that the agency will seek state funding for the project to add it into the agency’s next capital investment plan, which is approved every spring.
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