A rookie transit employee was fatally struck by a D prepare late Thursday evening in The Bronx whereas organising flags to warn of a development mission forward, metropolis and union officers stated.
Moet McCullum, a mom of three with simply 11 months on the job, was hit shortly after 11:30 p.m. on the 161st Road–Yankee Stadium station, the MTA stated. Emergency medical staff took the 41-year-old in important situation to Lincoln Hospital, the place she was pronounced lifeless.
“This simply broke my coronary heart to get up within the early morning hours to search out out that we had misplaced one in all our dearest members,” John Chiarello, president of Transport Staff Union Native 100, stated at a Friday press briefing.
The Nationwide Transportation Security Board stated it has dispatched a “go workforce” to New York Metropolis to research McCullum’s dying, the primary on-the-tracks fatality of a transit employee since 57-year-old Hilarion Joseph was hit by a D prepare in November 2023 whereas he was on flagging duties at Manhattan’s thirty fourth Road–Herald Sq. station.
That incident led the Federal Transit Administration to quote the MTA for what FTA officers referred to as an “escalating sample” of security failures, together with a 58% surge since 2022 in “near-miss occasions” involving transit staff.
The MTA defines a near-miss occasion as one marked by “potential worker contact with trains.” In accordance with the FTA report, which was launched as two directives, these normally contain improper flagging, a security follow through which staff arrange flags and lights to warn monitor staff in regards to the presence of trains.
From 1998 to 2007, there have been 10 monitor employee fatalities — together with the 2007 deaths of Marvin Franklin and Daniel Boggs, who have been struck by trains in Brooklyn and Manhattan inside the span of 5 days.
“I labored on the tracks, I do know the flagging, I do know the problems, but it surely’s inherently harmful work,” Chiarello stated. “While you’re working below stay service holding New York transferring, you’re going to have points.”
The FTA didn’t reply Friday to a request for remark.
An inside MTA incident account obtained by The Metropolis Reporter stated the sufferer in Thursday evening’s lethal collision was organising flags on the tracks when she was struck. The account notes the prepare operator “didn’t see any lights” and “proceeded at regular pace” whereas heading south from the 167th Road cease.
“Nothing is extra vital than the protection of our workers, the protection of our prospects,” stated Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York Metropolis Transit. “So we stand along with the union and the investigative companies to guarantee that as soon as a root trigger is discovered that we do what’s needed to guard our workers.”
McCullum, whose twin sister has labored for New York Metropolis Transit for 10 years, normally served as a prepare conductor. However officers stated she was posted as a development flagger late Thursday, with a supply telling The Metropolis Reporter she was a part of a crew that was organising flagging earlier than contractors may begin putting in fiber-optic cable in manhole covers at monitor stage.
“They’re on the market ensuring that the contractors are protected on the tracks,” Chiarello stated.
Chris Drummond, a TWU Native 100 vp who represents subway prepare operators and conductors, was among the many officers who met with McCullum’s mom, Elizabeth, and different kin within the wake of the dying.
“That is harmful work,” he stated. “Our brothers and sisters threat their lives day by day so passengers get to and from and get the place they’re going safely.”
