In the Washington Metro system, stopping in front of an open door like that probably would have gotten that old man knocked flat on his face into the car. I know that when I was commuting regularly, I became quite impatient and often tried to just beat the doors, as did most of the other regulars, and woe betide the poor tourist standing there in confusion. After a while we tend to become oblivious to the danger, I guess.
I’m glad you’re all right – that was a scary close call! And this thread is equally scary!
I have a fear of being pushed off the platform in front of a C-train and always brace myself as the C-train is coming into the station.
We have a few C-train related fatalities a year. Last year on one of the platforms downtown there was an arguement between a teenage boy and a women over dope. The women pushed the boy just as a train was coming. His lower body went into the gap and his legs remained on the platform. It was a quick death for him, and he unfortuantely ended up a twisted 12 feet long under the train.
They run about five minutes apart, and missing that particularly one cost me 20 minutes waiting for my commuter train home. Not a big deal in time, as everyone has correctly pointed out.
Again, though, please understand that my experience running for the subway in the past has been binary: either I make it, or I don’t. Option #3, injury with a possibility of maiming, has never come up before. I’d never thought of running for the train as being risky in any way. Even staring at the gap this morning getting on the subway, it’s hard to believe I managed to get my foot and leg in there – it really isn’t a very big gap.
Be careful reaching your hand out. A few years ago in Germany a girl did this and the door closed - except her hand and bracelet were inside the train and due to the bracelet she could not extract her hand. She was dragged along the platform, smashed into a concrete wall at the end and her hand popped out of the door, but she broke a whole bunch of bones.
Yeah, I definitely know better with that. I’ve watched plenty of folks get their arms or backpacks or briefcases stuck in the door. As I said, having the instinct to reach out as if I could somehow hold the door open was nothing short of foolish. I think people get that bad habit from riding in elevators. Subway doors do NOT have those kinds of sensors, folks!
I’m sure I could hazard a number of uneducated guesses, but I don’t have any factual idea why not. It’s an interesting question. The reasons that immediately spring to mind are:
The sensors and corresponding mechanisms might add significant cost to each subway car; and,
People would be able to hold the doors open indefinitely for their slower friends or whatnot just by sticking their hands out. Of course, people do this anyway by pulling on the emergency open cord, but not all that often.
I was thinking something similar, but then thought that elevators don’t really have the same problem. But then, it is probably a matter of scale - a lot more slow friends, and a delayed train is a bigger problem than a delayed elevator.
I did this probably about a year ago now. The door closed on my wrist with my hand holding my briefcase inside the train. I, rather stupidly, decided that I didn’t want to lose the bag and held on. A bunch of people on the train pried the door and I got in. The conductor announced several times through out the rest of the train ride the danger of sticking hands in closing train doors as I sat sheepishly in a corner.
I try to not be in such a rush now, or at least not go bag first.
Actually, our C-Train doors do have sensors and they will re-open if they hit something bigger then a few inches when closing. I know of one girl who used her purse to try to hold the door and it caught that, but I’ve stuck my arm in a few times and the doors will reopen for me.
Edit to add: Calgary riders all know the ‘Please stand clear of the door’!
Our trains have actual drivers too, they aren’t automated.
I’m glad that Montreal’s metro door would reopen, even if a woodenmatch or a newspaper was in the way.
I’ve never seen a jumper, before or after, not the …mark left behind. Sad to say i’ve smelt burning flesh though, wafting through the tunnel of two very close stops. (for those familiar with the metro here, it was between Peel and Mcgill)
Actually, Chicago El trains and subways do have those sensors… but once in awhile they malfunction, so don’t bet your life on it.
The Metra and South Shore trains, however, do not have such sensors.
About 12 or 15 years ago a woman on the South Shore train platform at Randolph Station (now “Millennium Station”) fell into the gap and was crushed, but if I recall, she took about an hour or so to die. Lower body destroyed, upper body awake, coherent, and in agony.
Also some years ago, a young woman on one of the northern Metra lines got her violin case caught in the doorway. By the time everything came to a halt she had had one leg severed and nearly lost the other.
I did something similar in Tokyo once, running for a train leaving on a busy subway line. I jumped into the doorway just as the door was closing - except I was on my way to visit a friend for the weekend and I was wearing a large rucksack. Which got stuck in the door along with my stupid self. There were a very hairy few seconds, because Japanese people tend not to approach strangers (just little things, like no-one helping you with your suitcase up the subway steps, even though the people overall are usually very polite), but luckily some salaryman eventually grabbed me and pulled me into the carriage.
It was such a stupid thing to do, especially when another train would have been along in a few minutes. It’s just the mindset you get into in big cities, I think.
Getting smooshed by a train is one of my worst fears since I moved to NYC. This kind of thing is why I so rarely run to catch a train and why I will NEVER stick anything of mine, body part or otherwise, in the door to hold the train.
Unfortunately, I have been inconvenienced by another’s suicide.
Specifically, October 27th, 2006. Washington DC / MD / VA metro. Red line. I went down into the Bethesda Metro station. Had to renew my licensce with the MVA.
The metro was PACKED. No red line cars running. Somebody had just jumped in front of a train at THIS metro station. I was more pissed about the trouble than the fact somebody had died. (I know, but I’m shallow)
Ended up taking a $55 (!) cab ride to the MVA. The date is on my license as date of issue. That’s how I remember.
I was in Stuttgart once and saw a woman jump from a pedestrian overpass onto a major traffic road. As it was only 20 feet high or so, she didn’t die when she landed. But what I thought was most ugly about it was that she managed to look up in time to see the car that ran her over.
The rest was pretty messy too… Ick.
There’s no metro system in my homecountry, but in all the places I’ve been in SE Asia that have metro systems, Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong, you can’t get in or fall to the tracks simply because they had the common sense of closing them up in glass with doors that open only when the train arrives, why isn’t that standard for all metro systems?
Because many metro systems were originally built in the 19th Century when lives were cheap, and successive politicians have been too cheap and too afraid to raise taxes to retrofit the systems…?
A few years back, I was riding a commuter line outside Tokyo. I was seated and half-asleep in the front car of a 10-car train. I was suddenly awakened by the sound of a sharp alarm ringing, a loud deep horn blowing and the force of the train applying the emergency break.
The train had stopped half-way along a platform at a local station (where the commuter line doesn’t usually stop) and all I could see were the reactions of the faces of the people waiting there. Some were screaming, others pointing at the track, a few turned away from the scene, etc. I just realized we had a jumper, and in all possibility, parts of the body were directly under me. Then the notorious 人身事故 (jinshinjiko) announcement came over the speakers meaning, “accident resulting in injury/death.”
The train doors did not open for a while since half of the train had no platform and this was an elevated part of the track. So we had to sit there and just see the commotion going on outside. Security, station personnel, police and finally emergency arriving at the scene.
After a few minutes, the train moved slowly backwards to allow personnel to recover what was presumably left of the body. About 10 minutes later, the train moved up to reach the whole of the platform. After it was hosed and wiped very quickly, we continued on our way.
The local authorities are very used to this in Japan it seems. The total lost time was about 30min.