A New York City subway driver died early Thursday after he was trapped between a train Q from which he was leaving and the platform and fell on the tracks, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.
The episode took place Wednesday night at Avenue M Station in Midwood, Brooklyn. The man, identified as Marcus Bryant, 37, was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.
Police officials said early Thursday that witnesses suggested Mr. Bryant’s clothes were trapped in the doorway of a train car. But Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, the MTA division that oversees the subway, later contradicted those reports, and police said he would be sent to the MTA investigation.
“We don’t think it was an incident at the door,” Mr. Davey at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Davey said Mr. Bryant “was trapped between the train and the platform and later fell into the pit, into the tracks, and a second train approached.” It was unclear if the second train had hit Mr. Bryant.
The station’s cameras were working at the time, the MTA said, but the agency declined to release images, citing the ongoing investigation.
A spokesman for the Local Transport Workers Union 100, which represents subway and bus workers, declined to comment.
Members of Mr. Bryant’s family could not be contacted, and a man at his address, a mile and a half from the station, declined to comment.
At the stop on Midwood Avenue M on Thursday afternoon, passengers expressed shock and fear at hearing why news cameras and officials had got off at the outdoor station, which has a particularly narrow platform.
Weeds grow between the tracks, which were filled with plastic bottles, caution tape, and men’s sneakers. Officials could not say exactly where Mr. Bryant had fallen.
“He’s a little crazy,” said Carlos Sanchez, 20, who was waiting for a Q train bound for Manhattan on his way to work out at a gym. He added that he was always cautious on the subway.
“If you’re from here, you just know how to step back and not get on the yellow side of the platform,” he said.
Outside the station, 38-year-old Valeriya Hofman, who works in real estate, said the death of Mr. Bryant was a reminder that the unpredictable was always possible.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’ve lived in New York City since 2008,” he said.
In 2019, at least two people died in New York after being dragged by subway cars.
That February, a man on his way home in Queens died at Grand Central Subway Station when a moving train had dragged him into a tunnel. The man, Vicente Alatorre, 39, was unconscious when police arrived and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
And a few months later, in April, Helen McDonald-Phalon, 21, died after being trapped between a train and the platform of the Union Square subway, according to news at the time. .
Although Mr Bryant’s death appeared to be accidental, New York City’s subway system has been concerned about safety since the number of passengers plummeted during the pandemic.
A Goldman Sachs employee, Daniel Enriquez, was shot dead on the same Q line in late May. The assassination came just days after officials announced a milestone: 3.6 million subway trips in a single day, a pandemic-era record.
In April, a gunman fired 33 shots at an N train traveling through Sunset Park during the morning trip, injuring 10 passengers; more than a dozen more were injured in the chaos. And in January, Michelle Go, a Deloitte employee, was killed after being pushed onto the tracks of Times Square Station.
Kirsten Noyes contributed to the research.