1. NEWSDAY,FRIDAY,JANUARY19,2007www.newsday.comLIRR
T
he Long Island Rail Road knew for more than
three decades that the gap between trains and plat-
forms posed a serious threat to passengers, injur-
ing hundreds of riders in terrifying falls.
The railroad knew that Patricia Freeman fell into a gap at
the Garden City station in July 2004, fracturing a hand,
three ribs and a bone in her spine.
It knew that Melissa Kalbacher slipped into a gap at the
Hunters Point station in Queens in January 1998, tearing the
skin off her right shin.
THE GAP WHAT WE FOUND
— Gerry Bringmann, LIRR Commuters Council
BY JENNIFER MALONEY and KARLA SCHUSTER
STAFF WRITERS
THIRTY
YEARS OF
NEGLECT
It knew that Mark Daniels plunged
into a gap at Hicksville in 1985, crushing
his pelvis.
Since 1995, the LIRR has logged
more than 800 gap incidents at sta-
tions from Penn to Bridgehampton, ac-
cording to records obtained and ana-
lyzed by Newsday. The falls have in-
volved toddlers and senior citizens,
regular commuters and occasional rid-
ers, the disabled and the able-bodied.
During that period, gap falls have com-
prised an increasing percentage of
rider accidents.
And yesterday, LIRR officials re-
vealed that an estimated 38 percent of
its platforms have problem gaps.
Yet until recently the railroad’s ef-
forts to prevent falls amounted to little
more than “Watch the Gap” warnings
posted inside train cars, at a few stations
and in safety brochures.
The long history of gap falls took a
deadly turn in August, when Natalie
Smead, 18, a Minnesota teenager whose
blood-alcohol level was nearly three
times the legal limit for driving, fell
through a gap at the Woodside station
and crawled into the path of an oncom-
ing train. In ensuing days, Newsday mea-
sured and reported the size of gaps
across the system, including one in Syos-
set that was found to be 15 inches wide.
Only then did the railroad launch its
first systematic attempt to fix the gap
problem. That effort, which they an-
nouncedtwo months later, used relative-
ly simple methods — such as tacking
wooden boards onto platform edges —
that top LIRR officials admit they could
have employed years ago.
“This was nothing new,” state Sen.
Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the
Senate’s deputy majority leader, said of
the gaps. “Injuries were occurring —
nothing fatal until now, but when you
have continuous injuries . . . I just be-
lieve that more significant steps should
have been taken sooner.”
Smead’s death, the railroad’s first gap-
related fatality, brought into sharp, pub-
lic focus a problem that has generated
more than 30 years’ worth of rider com-
plaints and lawsuits but little govern-
ment oversight or regulation.
“Here’s a situation that was just total-
ly neglected for 30 years until Natalie
died,” said attorney Bob Sullivan, who is
representing the Smeads in a $5-million
lawsuit against the LIRR. “Shame on
every LIRR official for the last 30 years.”
A Newsday analysis of railroad
records shows that, except for 2002,
See GAP on 6
‘WHY THE HELL DIDN’T
THEY DO IT SOONER?’
Commuter John
Ⅲ CHECK YOUR STATION
Database of safety record
and gap measurements
Ⅲ SYOSSET’S STORY
Watch a video of rider
reactions to the largest gap
Ⅲ SHARE WITH US
Tell your gap experiences
and send photos
4

2. NEWSDAY,FRIDAY,JANUARY19,2007www.newsday.comLIRR
Jamaica
NY-Penn Station
Woodside
Ronkonkoma
Mineola
Shea Stadium
Hicksville
Syosset
Huntington
Long Beach
Flatbush Avenue
Port Jefferson
Great Neck
Freeport
Seaford
Gap
Slip/trip on stairs
Slip/trip on platform
Escalators
Doors
Collision
Slip/trip inside equipment
Struck by object
Slip/trip on wet floor
Slip/trip on ice or snow
356
428
55
72
52
21
90
27
55
31
81
24
28
29
28
STATIONS
ALL
INCIDENTS GAP
STATIONS: 15 WITH THE MOST GAP INCIDENTS
TIMING: RUSH HOURS ARE MOST DANGEROUS
PASSENGER ACCIDENTS: GAP IS TOP CAUSE
According to the LIRR database, from Jan. 1, 2001,
through Aug. 31, 2006
SOURCE: NEWSDAY ANALYSIS OF LIRR FIGURES, JANUARY 2001 THROUGH AUGUST 2006 NEWSDAY / GUSTAVO PABON
228
186
166
157
116
107
103
103
102
342342342
535353
30
23
20
17
5
15
13
9
9
7
7
6
6
6
gap
falls
6 a.m.
to 9:59 a.m.
99 gap
falls
10 a.m.
to 3:59 p.m.
84 gap
falls
4 p.m.
to 7:59 p.m.
97 gap
falls
8 p.m.
to 11:59 p.m.
41 gap
falls
Midnight
to 5:59 a.m.
21
THE GAP WHAT WE FOUNDPHOTOBYCHARLESECKERT
gap falls were the leading cause of
passenger injuries in the 5 1
/2 years
prior to Smead’s Aug. 5 death. The
analysis revealed 374 gap incidents
from January 2001 through last July.
Looking back, the gap “was not
high on the list of things going on,”
said Charles W. Hoppe, the LIRR
president from 1990 to 1994. “Maybe
it should have been.”
Gerry Bringmann, chairman of the
LIRR Commuters Council, an advisory
group, said that when the council asked
about gap incidents, LIRR officials told
the panel that the falls were an inevita-
ble part of running the nation’s largest
and busiest commuter railroad.
“The impression we always got from
the railroad,” Bringmann said, “is that,
‘It’s just one of those things that’s going
to happen.’ ”
In the wake of Smead’s
death, the railroad’s past
failure to address the gap
problem strikes a raw
nerve for riders injured
in such falls.
The LIRR “had knowl-
edge of a dangerous situ-
ation and did nothing about it,” said
Lori Wright, one of three people who
fell through the gap at the Syosset sta-
tion on the same day in January 1996.
Railroad officials say they have long
recognized the hazard of platform
gaps, noting that some space is neces-
sary for the safe passage of trains. But
they say that until Smead’s death, they
believed that rider education programs
were enough to mitigate the danger.
In recent months, the railroad has
launched an aggressive campaign to re-
duce gaps at several stations by moving
tracks, shifting platforms and installing
inexpensive wooden boards. The LIRR
also has expanded its education pro-
grams, including posting a gap safety
video on its Web site.
LIRR officials point out that over-
all, the railroad is safer for passengers
than it was a decade ago; the number
of total rider accidents has dropped
50 percent since then.
“I remember at different safety
meetings . . . we discussed the issue of
the gap at length,” said Acting LIRR
President Ray Kenny. “They were for
the most part, overwhelmingly,
minor incidents. I don’t know if we
could have foreseen the accident that
happened at Woodside.”
Newsday findings
A team of Newsday reporters spent
five months investigating gap inci-
dents and the LIRR’s handling of
them, reviewing thousands of docu-
ments obtained under the state Free-
dom of Information law, and conduct-
ing scores of interviews.
Among the findings:
Ⅲ Since the early ’90s, gap falls have
consistently ranked as one of the top
three causes of customer injuries on an-
nual LIRR safety reports. Newsday
found 882 gap incidents on the LIRR
since 1995, but that total likely is higher
because the railroad does not count all
falls into the gap as “gap accidents.”
Ⅲ The LIRR has had more gap inci-
dents per year than Metro-North Rail-
road in all but one of the last 10 years.
It has had more annual gap incidents
than New Jersey Transit since at least
2000. The LIRR’s rate of gap falls per
million riders also exceeds that of the
two other rail lines.
Ⅲ The inspector general of the LI-
RR’s parent agency, the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, issued a re-
port in 1987 detailing gap dangers on
Metro-North Railroad. Yet neither
the report nor the resulting changes
made at Metro-North were shared
with the LIRR, its sister commuter
rail, LIRR officials said.
Ⅲ Two weeks before Smead died,
the MTA objected to a federal proposal
to limit gaps to 10 inches on straight
platforms and 13 inches on curved plat-
forms — even though the agency said it
could meet those standards at most
LIRR and Metro-North stations, ac-
cordingto anMTA letter to the U.S. De-
partment of Transportation.
Ⅲ Government oversight agencies
do not track gap incidents and have
never mandated an enforceable maxi-
mum width for platform gaps. In-
stead, they have focused almost exclu-
sively on allowing enough room for
trains to pass through stations.
Why gaps exist
The problem of gaps emerged
when railroads began raising plat-
forms to the height of train doors in
the early 1900s — a practice that ex-
panded in the ’50s and ’60s. Historical-
ly, passengers climbed stairs from
low platforms to board trains.
But as railroads converted platforms
to improve efficiency and accessibility,
they faced a dilemma: Gaps were neces-
sary for trains to pass safely through
stations but could also pose a hazard to
riders if they were too wide.
All rail lines, including the LIRR,
regularly measure the distance from
GAP from 4
6

3. LIRRwww.newsday.comNEWSDAY,FRIDAY,JANUARY19,2007
>>NEWSDAY MEASURES:
15” SYOSSET
(AUG. 8, 2006)
NEWSDAY PHOTO / JIM PEPPLER
A passenger makes the leap at the Syosset train station, where three people fell through a gap on the same day in January 1996.
FACT: THE FEDERAL RAILROAD
AGENCY RECORDED BEE STINGS AND
SPIDER BITES BUT NOT GAP FALLS.
the center of the tracks to the plat-
form edge. But until Smead was killed,
the LIRR did not keep records of
those measurements and did not use
them to calculate gaps. LIRR officials
say they will now measure platform
gaps systemwide every year.
What and when LIRR officials knew
Gap falls have sparked lawsuits
against the LIRR and the MTA since
at least 1970, when a 72-year-old Man-
hattan woman slipped into a gap at the
Valley Stream station, suffered “debili-
tating injuries” and tried to sue for
$75,000. Rose Zully’s lawsuit was dis-
missed for procedural reasons.
In total, Newsday found 62 gap inju-
ry suits against the LIRR, including
those of Mark Daniels, Patricia Free-
man and Melissa Kalbacher. Daniels,
who suffered a crushed pelvis and
massive internal bleeding in 1985, sued
for $2 million. He alleged that the rail-
road knowingly permitted a danger-
ous condition to exist and settled his
case for an undisclosed amount. Kal-
bacher, who fell in 1998, settled for
$20,000, and Freeman’s case about her
2004 accident is still pending.
“Did the LIRR drop the ball in deal-
ing with the gap issue?” said Bring-
mann, the commuters council presi-
dent. “Long-term, over the years? Yes,
they did.”
In 1987, an MTA inspector general re-
port on the dangers of wide platform
gaps also could have flagged LIRR offi-
cials to the problem.
The report advised Metro-North to
make identifying and fixing dangerous
gaps a safety and budget priority.
Shortly after the study began, Metro-
North began measuring and narrow-
ing gaps in its system.
But while officials from the MTA,
Metro-North and the LIRR met at quar-
terly safety meetings, this information
never was shared with the LIRR, LIRR
officials say.
As a result of the inspector general
study, Metro-North also began tracking
its gap incidents. The LIRR began doing
so in the early 1990s.
Gap falls soon emerged as one of
the top three causes of customer acci-
dents, according to annual LIRR safe-
ty updates presented to MTA board
members on the LIRR / LI Bus Com-
mittee. In 1996, they ranked No. 1.
Still, MTA board members say that
the annual totals of gap incidents
weren’t high enough to draw much at-
tention. Between 1995 to 2005, the
number of gap falls reported in safety
updates ranged from 55 to 90 per year,
except for 2002, when it dropped to
23, officials say.
“It never reached the point where it
was so outlandish that it clearly reached
the highest priority,” said Mitchell
Pally, a member of the board’s
LIRR / LI Bus Committee since 2005
who has seen those breakdowns at com-
mittee meetings. He noted that the
monthly safety reports do not specify
the severity of customer injuries.
Jose Fernandez, LIRR vice presi-
dent for safety and security, referring
to his department’s analysis of acci-
dent statistics, said the number of gap
falls raised no red flags.
“We didn’t see anything that just
stood out,” he said.
Lack of oversight
The Federal Railroad Administration,
which requires commuter railroads to
report accidents that cause serious inju-
ry or death, tracks accidents involving
reptiles, bee stings and spider bites. But
it doesn’t have a category for gap falls.
Consequently, even the administra-
tion task force that began studying the
problem after Smead’s death so far has
been unable to compile reliable national
statistics on gap incidents.
“As for why . . . [gap falls] is not a cate-
gory, when I asked around, the answer
was, ‘We don’t know,’ ” said administra-
tion spokeswoman DeDe Cordell.
LIRR officials don’t have an accu-
See GAP on 8
7

4. NEWSDAY,FRIDAY,JANUARY19,2007www.newsday.comLIRR
FACT: UNTIL NATALIE
THE LIRR DID NOT
THE GAP WHAT WE FOUND
>>NEWSDAY MEASURES:>>NEWSDAY MEASURES:
5.5” JAMAICA5.5” JAMAICA
(DEC. 6, 2006)(DEC. 6, 2006)
Measuring the gap:
How wide is too wide?
10-11
Lack of rules, oversight
led to gap crisis.
14
History of the problem:
Curved tracks set stage
16-17
In their own words:
Victims tell their stories
18-21
Why it took so long
for LIRR to take action
22-23
INSIDE
TALKABOUT IT
Newsday.com
Post Comment
TOMORROW
A dangerous curve: 3 falls in
two hours at Syosset station
SUNDAY
The future of the LIRR
THE STAFF
rate count of gap falls on their system,
either — despite keeping tabs on such
falls in its internal accident database.
The railroad’s safety department does
not always classify gap falls as such in
its incident database, the Newsday re-
view found. For example, when a pas-
senger slips on ice or debris, then falls
into the gap, the accident is classified
by the first event and not as a gap fall.
Experts say that physical condi-
tions, particularly the sharpness of a
curve, dictate how large a gap must be
— so any mandated gap maximum
would have to allow for exceptions.
The only law currently limiting the
width of platform gaps is the federal
Americans with Disabilities Act,
which sets a 3-inch maximum at plat-
forms built after 1991. But, according
to a Federal Railroad Administration
report on Americans with Disabilities
Act gap requirements, that standard is
“probably impossible to meet” be-
cause that small distance doesn’t
allow for safe passage of trains.
Most commuter railroads, including
the LIRR, comply with the disabilities
act through the use of bridge plates —
metal ramps that crews can extend
from the train door to the platform.
Federal officials did not propose a
more feasible gap maximum until last
February, 15 years after the disabilities
act was enacted. The proposed change
— which could be adopted later this
year — includes a maximum gap at new
stations of 10 inches on straight tracks
and 13 inches on curved tracks.
In July, the MTA, erroneously think-
ing the restriction would apply to exist-
ing stations, objected.
Elliot G. Sander, who took over this
month as the MTA’s new executive di-
rector and chief executive, said while
officials will “review what transpired
in the past,” their primary focus will
be on future solutions.
“The LIRR and MTA are conduct-
ing a comprehensive review of the gap
issues,” Sander said, “and we are com-
mitted to developing a menu of best
practices that will enhance safety.”
What did the LIRR do?
The LIRR has been monitoring gap in-
cidents and presenting the numbers to
MTA board members in regular safety
reports since at least the early 1990s —
about the same time it launched its first
“Watch the Gap” campaign.
That effort, which included fliers
and train decals, was launched in 1992
and modeled after the London Under-
ground’s “Mind the Gap” program,
though it never reached the success of
its counterpart across the Atlantic.
For years, it was the LIRR’s primary
strategy for preventing gap falls.
But unlike the Underground’s cam-
paign, which was so aggressive it has be-
come a part of England’s popular cul-
ture, the LIRR’s rider education pro-
gram was limited in scope: a mention in
a passenger brochure or during a school
safety program. Decals on train doors.
“Watch the Gap” signs at a few stations.
Occasional train announcements.
The railroad’s efforts before Smead’s
death occasionally stretched beyond ed-
ucation, addressing problem gaps at a
handful of stations. For example, at Sy-
osset, the railroad assigned a conductor
to help riders board trains during the
morning rush hour.
“Obviously, they [LIRR officials]
were hopeful . . . that the education cam-
paign on its own could take care of the
problem,” Pally said. “And obviously, it
did not.”
Fernandez, the LIRR safety chief, de-
fended the railroad’s response to gap in-
cidents over the years, noting that the
LIRR has experimented with edge
boards and platform lighting.
“I believe we did what we could and
we did the best we could,” Fernandez
said. “We just continue to push for-
ward and try to fix what we can.”
Death sparks action
In the months after Smead died,
the railroad stepped up its education
efforts and made physical changes to
tracks or platforms at stations with
problem gaps.
“Now on the train they say, ‘Watch
the Gap,’ and I want to laugh,” said Mel-
issa Kalbacher of Manhattan, formerly
of St. James, who injured her knee in a
gap fall at the Hunters Point station in
1998. “They never used to say that. It’s
really a shame they had to wait [until
Smead died].”
Since August, the railroad has re-
alignedat least 25tracks at 17 stations, in-
cluding Woodside’s Track 3, where
Smead fell.
The LIRR also has raised or shifted
platforms to narrow gaps at six stations.
Until recently, track realignment —
in which a machine moves tracks that
have shifted over time — was not used
specifically to narrow gaps, officials say.
The railroad also has added platform
conductors at five more stations and in-
stalled wooden edge boards at four sta-
tions to narrow the gaps.
“What they’re doing now,” Bring-
mann said, “you have to ask, ‘Then why
the hell didn’t they do it sooner?’ ”
These techniques reduce gaps but
don’t eliminate the problem, railroad
officials say, adding that stations with
sharp curves will require more costly
GAP from 6
Is the LIRR doing enough
to protect riders?
Tell us online at
newsday.com/gap.
NEWSDAY FILE PHOTO / JIM PEPPLER
REPORTERS: Jennifer Barrios,
Sophia Chang, Michael Ebert, Reid J.
Epstein, Jennifer Sinco Kelleher,
Eden Laikin, Herbert Lowe, Joseph
Mallia, Jennifer Maloney, Luis Perez
and Karla Schuster
COPY EDITORS: Christine De La
Cruz, Kathy Drouin,
Timothy Hughes
DESIGN: Andrea Miller,
Richard Loretoni, Bruce Dansker
GRAPHICS EDITORS:
Timothy Healy, J. Stephen Smith,
Andrew Wong
ARTISTS: Rod Eyer, Richard
Harris Jr., Gustavo Pabon
PHOTO EDITOR: Jeff Schamberry
DEPUTY LI EDITOR: Mae Cheng
LONG ISLAND EDITOR:
Cliff Schechtman
NEWSDAY.COM
EDITOR: Jonathan McCarthy
DATABASE EDITOR: Dennis Elder
DESIGNERS: Siemond Chan,
Joe Garraffo, Barbara Teleha
CONTRIBUTORS: Meredith Daniels,
Emily Dooley, John Paraskevas
8

5. LIRRwww.newsday.comNEWSDAY,FRIDAY,JANUARY19,2007
SMEAD’S DEATH IN AUGUST,
RECORDGAP MEASUREMENTS.
PHOTOBYCHARLESECKERT
LIRR workers take measurements before repositioning the tracks next
to Platform 7 at Jamaica station.
solutions.
LIRR officials, who since August
have considered a range of possible
gap fixes, say they have narrowed
their options: reducing the railroad’s
standard distance between platforms
and tracks, installing mechanical gap
fillers on sharply curved platforms,
and widening the doorsteps on trains.
Railroad officials say they have not
yet determined how much the LIRR
has already spent, or will spend this
year, closing gaps.
The MTA is expected to submit
2007 budget amendments to the State
Legislature within the next month.
“We’re working together closely . . .
with our best people to mitigate this
problem moving forward,” said Kenny,
the acting LIRR president.
Several longtime LIRR employees
say the railroad is an easy scapegoat
for a difficult problem.
Gary Lockel, 56, of East Islip, an engi-
neer who retired in October after 33
years, said, “I think some people are
just getting on the bandwagon. Every-
body’s running to their lawyer. It’s like
getting hit by lightning to fall through
the crack.”
Doug Willox, 54, an engineer who re-
tired to North Carolina after 31 years at
the LIRR, said he had witnessed only
one gap fall during his career. It hap-
pened at Woodside.
“It’s an accident, that’s all,” he said.
“It’s just a matter of people being more
careful. They’re trying to blame the
railroad, when they should just look in
the mirror and blame themselves.”
A state probe into Smead’s death
found that she contributed to her own
death because she was drunk and
scrambled underneath the platform
and into the path of a train arriving on
the opposite track.
State officials measured the gap at
the spot where they believe Smead fell
and found it to be between 7 7
/8 and
81
/2 inches. Elsewhere along the same
platform, Newsday found gaps as wide
as 11 inches.
In addition to the state investiga-
tion, the National Transportation
Safety Board is investigating Smead’s
death. As part of the probe, LIRR offi-
cials took systemwide platform gap
measurements for the first time. The
results indicate that 100 of the rail-
road’s 262 platforms at passenger sta-
tions have gaps that need some kind
of improvement, officials said. That
figure includes platforms where
work already has been done. News-
day obtained the gap measurements
at 40 LIRR stations that reveal a max-
imum gap of 133
/4 inches on straight
platforms and a maximum gap of
151
/2 inches on curved ones.
By comparison, most gaps on Metro-
North fall between 5 and 7 inches.
However, Metro-North has several on
curved platforms stretching as wide as
123
/4 inches, and on one straight plat-
form, the space reaches a gaping 153
/4
inches.
A broader state probe into the gap
issue on both the LIRR and Metro-
North Railroad is expected to con-
clude this spring and probably will in-
clude recommendations for both
railroads.
The NTSB investigation into
Smead’s death and the LIRR’s gap
problem could continue for several
months.
And a Federal Railroad Administra-
tion task force studying the issue on a
national scale could recommend new
regulations sometime this year.
“Sometimes, I guess, an incident will
drive [policy],” said Fernandez, who
said his department is participating in
the task force. “There used to be an
old saying: Safety rules are written in
blood.”
Lives forever changed
For some of the injured, moving for-
ward hasn’t been easy.
Jayne Rothman, 44, of Fresh Mead-
ows, flinches every time she steps
onto a subway car or train, though
it’s been more than 20 years since
she fell into a gap at the Hewlett
station.
“The injuries I got from the fall, the
physical injuries, have all healed,” the
homemaker said. “But it was a very
traumatic thing. I still have nightmares
. . . even to this day, just getting on a
subway car is difficult.”
Recently, Skelos described the rail-
road’s limited response to gap inci-
dents over the years as “benign
neglect.”
Patricia Freeman, of Manhattan,
who fractured her hand, ribs and spine
in a 2004 fall, uses a different word.
“It’s a travesty,” said Freeman, 64,
who wore a back brace for six months.
“I think it’s human indifference.”
The MTA inspector general
released a report in 1987 titled,
“An Investigation of Gaps
Between Platforms and Trains
At Metro-North Stations.”
The report was done after an
investigation into the subway
system’s track renewal work on
the Brighton line, which “found
potential safety hazards to pas-
sengers . . . due to gaps be-
tween the cars and station plat-
forms.”
LIRR officials say they have no
record of being notified of the
report or its recommendations
that include:
Ⅲ More needs to be done than
alerting passengers to watch
the gap.
Ⅲ No federal or state laws or
guidelines could be found to
determine what gap distance is
considered unsafe.
Ⅲ Identify gaps that pose a
potential danger and promptly
repair them or provide safe-
guards at those stations.
Ⅲ Investigate all reported gap-
related accidents or gap com-
plaints and take action.
Ⅲ Assure that all major pro-
grams to construct or repair
stations and tracks take into
consideration possible hazards
that could be caused by gaps.
Ⅲ Provide sufficient resources
to the safety department so it
can monitor the identification of
hazardous gaps and verify that
repairs are made promptly or
safeguards provided.
Ⅲ “If a Metro-North passenger
claims an injury was suffered
because of a gap, this information
is not communicated by the
Claims Department to other
departments. Thus, neither S&F
[Structures & Facilities] or Safety
may be aware that it should in-
spect the site and take appropri-
ate steps to minimize or eliminate
the hazard. Metro-North’s failure
to take such steps could subject it
to liability in the event of another
accident at the same site.”
Warningmissed
9

6. NEWSDAY,FRIDAY,JANUARY19,2007www.newsday.comLIRR
THE GAP SIX STORIESTHE GAP THE BLAME
BY JENNIFER MALONEY
STAFF WRITER
The LIRR’s parent agency knew that
education wasn’t enough.
State authorities didn’t set a maxi-
mum gap width.
Federal officials didn’t keep track of
gap injuries, even as hundreds of passen-
gers were hurt from falls each year.
And no one fixed the gap.
Whilethe LongIsland RailRoad works
to reduce its dangerously wide platform
gaps in the wake of Natalie Smead’s
death, a review of authorities who could
have intervened reveals a void of over-
sight and regulation of the number one
cause of customer accidents on the na-
tion’s busiest commuter railroad.
“Just because we adhere to the law
doesn’t mean we don’t have a prob-
lem,” said MTA board member Mitch-
ell Pally, who sits on the LIRR/LI Bus
Committee. “People are being injured
and in one unfortunate circumstance,
one girl was killed.”
On Aug. 5, Smead slipped through a
gap at Woodside station, then crawled
under a platform and into the path of
an oncoming train.
A state investigation into her death
found that the railroad was in compli-
ance with all state and federal laws.
However,government oversight agen-
cies have never mandated an enforce-
able maximum width for platform gaps.
Instead, they have focused almost exclu-
sively on allowing enough room for
trains to pass through stations.
Federal officials now are consider-
ing new regulations that would limit
platform gaps at new stations to 10
inches on straight platforms and 13
inches on curved platforms.
MTA oversight
While state and federal agencies left
platform gaps to the discretion of rail-
roads, the LIRR’s parent agency, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authori-
ty, failed to inform the LIRR about
techniques the MTA knew could elimi-
nate a serious hazard to riders.
In 1987, the MTA’s inspector general
investigated problem gaps on the Metro-
North Commuter Railroad after having
discovered similar problems on a New
York City subway line. The study, which
found that gap problems could not be
solved by education alone, advised
Metro-North to identify and fix problem
gaps and take gaps into consideration in
all major construction or repair projects.
Metro-North implemented those rec-
ommendations, but the MTA never im-
posed them on the LIRR, according to
Metro-North and LIRR officials.
MTA and LIRR officials also for at
least two decades received monthly
and annual commuter surveys includ-
ing many angry passenger complaints
about dangerous gaps.
Compiled by the LIRR Commuters
Council — a railroad advisory group
— the reports included comments
such as, “Put something at each door
so there isn’t such a big gap,” and, “The
gap between the platform and train in
Syosset is scary, much too wide.”
In November, MTA Chairman Peter
Kalikow’s testimony before a state As-
sembly committee underlined the par-
ent agency’s underestimation of the gap
problem. “Prior to the incident we had, I
think it was over the summer, they
never reached the serious stage,” Ka-
likow testified.
Yet since the mid-90s, the gap had
appeared as one of the top three caus-
es of LIRR customer accidents in annu-
al safety reports the railroad provided
to MTA board members sitting on the
LIRR/LI Bus Committee.
A review of LIRR accident records
shows that, with the exception of 2002,
gaps were the number one cause of cus-
tomer injuries during the 51
/2 years be-
fore Smead’s death.
Kalikow went on to say that, “Where
a station is built on a straight piece of
track, those platforms are great. When
they’re built behind a curved piece of
track, they’re not great.”
According to the LIRR’s own mea-
surements, gaps on straight platforms
stretch up to 133
/4 inches — a space as
large as a man’s size 15 shoe.
State, federal monitoring
The Federal Railroad Administra-
tion is responsible for monitoring all
commuter railroads, including track-
ing rider accidents nationwide.
But while the FRA requires railroads
to specify whether customer accidents
involved bees, spiders or reptiles, it
does not have a category for gap falls.
As a result, the administration has no
reliable statistics on gap accidents.
“As for why it’s not a category, basically
when I asked around, the answer was, ‘We
don’t know,’ ” DeDe Cordell, an FRA
spokeswoman,saidoftheagencynottrack-
ing gap falls. She said that the FRA now is
conductingareviewofthegapissue.
New York State law does not direct-
ly address platform gaps but sets a min-
imum distance between the center of
the tracks and the platform — allowing
for freight trains to pass safely. The
corresponding platform gap varies, de-
pending on the width of the train.
“In theory, it does make sense that
you would have a maximum gap and
make provisions that if you exceed the
maximum, you take certain measures,”
said Gerry Bringmann, chairman of the
LIRR Commuters Council. “That kind
of legislation only gets passed if you
have people pushing for it.”
But many railroad experts said regula-
tory bodies can’t set a gap maximum be-
cause sharp curves and other obstacles
sometimes necessitate very wide spaces.
But if state and federal regulations
don’t call for maximums, neither do
they require railroads to provide assis-
tance for crossing wide spaces.
State officials, citing the continuing in-
vestigations, declined to comment on
the absence of regulation or the possibili-
ty of new policy recommendations.
Following is the Long Island Rail
Road’s statement about the gap issue:
“Safety is the MTA Long Island Rail
Road’s first priority. Our focus in this
area has reduced customer accidents 50
percent over the last decade. Yet even
one accident is one too many. When an
accident occurs on Railroad property, it
is thoroughly investigated and actions
taken to prevent a recurrence.
“The LIRR is working closely and
cooperatively with federal and state
railroad oversight agencies as they
review concerns about the gap be-
tween trains and platforms and pre-
pare to issue gap-related safety recom-
mendations.
“However, the LIRR is already
taking actions to minimize the gap
through track resurfacing, or re-align-
ment, where it is feasible. Railroad
Engineering Department forces re-
cently raised and shifted track at
twenty-one stations in order to re-
duce the size of the gap at those
locations. We continue to identify
other stations where track resurfac-
ing can help minimize the gap. At
twelve stations, we have employed
other measures — edgeboards have
been installed to the face of the plat-
form at some stations; at others we
have shifted platform slabs to reduce
the gap. ‘Watch the Gap’ warning
messages are also being stenciled on
LIRR station platforms.
“On another front, research and
development is in progress to deter-
mine potential long-term measures,
which could include the use of gap
fillers or other devices.
“In an on-going effort to raise
customer awareness of the gap, LIRR
employees have developed a new
gap-warning sign, which uses a picto-
graph to more clearly demonstrate
the need to step over the gap. This
sign was installed at Shea Stadium
prior to the playoff games due to the
record crowds anticipated, and has
also been installed at other stations,
such as Penn Station, Flatbush, Jamai-
ca, Woodside, Syosset and Lawrence.
A newly designed pictograph, by a
recognized expert in iconography,
will be installed at all LIRR stations
and will replace the existing ‘Watch
the Gap’ decal on LIRR passenger
trains.
“A video with helpful tips on gap
safety was produced and made avail-
able on the LIRR’s Web site. It can be
viewed at www.mta.info/lirr/safety/.
“Other elements of the stepped-up
customer education effort include: a
new ‘Watch the Gap’ brochure, a
bi-lingual (Spanish-English) ‘Watch
the Gap’ flyer, and posters installed
on trains and at stations.
“The new ‘Watch the Gap’ bro-
chure highlights safety procedures for
boarding and exiting trains — advis-
ing customers to step carefully over
the gap; to hold children’s hands
when exiting or entering the train; to
use extra caution when navigating
gaps at curved platforms; and to
always keep a safe distance from the
edge of the platform. The train and
station posters and the bi-lingual flyer
echo this important safety message.
“While we have successfully re-
duced customer accidents in the last
ten years, we continue to strive for
further improvement. The safety of
our customers remains our number
one concern.”
AP PHOTO
Peter Kalikow detailed the MTA’s
underestimation of the gap problem
in November.
FEDS &
STATE
NO HELP
LIRR: SAFETY IS
TOP CONCERN
14

7. NEWSDAY,FRIDAY,JANUARY19,2007www.newsday.comLIRR
GAP
ANATOMY
When the LIRR launched service at newly built Pennsylvania Station
in 1910, its trains had to meet clearance restrictions for the station.
Today, those restrictions limit the width of LIRR cars to 10 feet.
Stations are built to accommodate the largest trains
that pass through. Freight trains and repair trains
require greater clearance than commuter trains.
Eight to 10 freight trains run on LIRR rails per day.
Here’s how a four-inch gap a freight train leaves
becomes a bigger problem with smaller commuter
trains.
REASON # 1 CAR SIZES
Outline of freight train
LIRR car
M7
10 feet, 8 inches 4 inches
NEWSDAY / ROD EYER
P l a t f o r m
Detailed data
enlarged in
circles at right
HOW
IT ALL
STARTEDBY JENNIFER MALONEY
STAFF WRITER
The gap problem now facing the Long
Island Rail Road was set in motion more
than 150 years ago, as the fledgling rail-
road pushed east from Jamaica, building
stations on donated land.
In the early days of train travel, pas-
sengers climbed onto steam trains
from ground level, mounting stairs
built into the sides of the cars.
Towns and villages that wanted
LIRR stations provided land to the rail-
road. It posed no problem then that
many of these parcels sat on curved
sections of track.
Many years later, however, those
curves would create some of the worst
gaps on the railroad — gaps the LIRR
now is trying to narrow.
In the beginning
In the 1830s, as the newly incorporat-
ed LIRR expanded to Hicksville and
Farmingdale, it used whatever land
local officials made available to build
stations, said LIRR spokeswoman
Susan McGowan.
Forty percent of the LIRR’s stations
were built on curved sections of track.
“It may have started 150 years ago as
a little, tiny platform where a conduc-
tor came down and put a box on the
ground . . . and it has now turned into
Hicksville station,” said Metro-North
Commuter Railroad spokeswoman
Marjorie Anders.
Those curves proved problematic
when the railroad began raising plat-
forms to the height of train doors in
the early 1900s — a practice that ex-
panded in the ’50s and ’60s.
Engineers faced a new dilemma: If
they set tracks too close to these
raised platforms, trains might plow
into the platforms. But if they set the
tracks too far away, passengers risked
falling into the gap.
Gap standards
Another century-old factor contrib-
uting to the size of platform gaps
emerged when the LIRR began offer-
ing service to the newly built Penn Sta-
tion. To use Penn Station, the LIRR
had to meet clearance requirements —
still effective today — that restrict
train width to no more than 10 feet.
Narrower trains mean wider gaps.
The railroad industry developed
standards for the minimum clearance
needed for freight trains — which are
wider than passenger trains — to pass
safely. This standard, mandated by
New York state railroad law, is 5 feet, 7
inches from the center of the tracks to
the platform.
Metro-North uses this measurement
as its internal standard. The LIRR, how-
ever, sets its tracks an extra inch far-
ther from the platform, a practice dat-
ing to 1963. LIRR officials, who are now
reconsidering the practice, said they
did not know why it was adopted.
These internal standards combined
with the widths of the train can be
used to calculate gap sizes.
Metro-North, which does not use
Penn Station, has wider trains than the
LIRR. As a result, Metro-North’s stan-
dard minimum gap is as small as 5 inch-
es, while the LIRR’s is 8 inches.
Government oversight agencies have
never mandated a maximum width for
platform gaps that they could enforce.
Instead, they have focused almost exclu-
sively on allowing enough room for
trains to pass through stations.
The only law setting a maximum
gap is the federal Americans with Dis-
abilities Act, which calls for no more
than 3 inches between the train and
the platform at stations built after 1991.
But federal officials admit that a
3-inch gap is impossible for most com-
muter rails to achieve because it
doesn’t allow enough space for trains
to pass.
Many commuter rails end up com-
plying with the ADA through an excep-
tion in that law, which allows the use
of bridge plates — metal ramps that ex-
tend manually from train doors to plat-
forms.
The U.S. Department of Transporta-
tion is considering new ADA regula-
tions that would limit gaps at new sta-
Make your contribution to the story
by submitting your gap picture at
newsday.com/gap, or tell us about
your gap experience by sending an
e-mail to Gap@newsday.com.
NOWONLINE
THE GAP THE EVIDENCE
COMBATING HISTORIC CURVES
NEWSDAY PHOTO / JIM PEPPLER
A westbound train departing Syosset LIRR station
16

8. LIRRwww.newsday.comNEWSDAY,FRIDAY,JANUARY19,2007
t is perhaps not surprising that the oldest commuter railroad in
North America has platform gaps that yawn as wide as 15 inches.
Some of the factors now affecting the Long Island Rail Road’s gaps
were set in motion more than a hundred years ago.
The Long Island Rail Road was incorporated in 1834, and in those
days, passengers climbed onto steam trains using ground-level steps
built into the sides of the cars. The railroad later built raised
platforms to make boardings easier, but those structures created
another problem — gaps.
Here’s a look at the major factors that cause gaps.
I
2-inch-wide
step plate
No step plate
FREIGHT TRAIN
10 feet, 8 inches wide
METRO NORTH M-7 TRAIN
10 feet, 4 inches wide
LIRR M-7 TRAIN
10 feet wide
4-INCH GAP
6-INCH GAP
8-INCH GAP
PlatformTrain
REASON # 2 CURVED STATIONS
P l a t f o r m
85 feet
15-inch gap
Certain stations feature platforms that curve to fit their environments. Of the LIRR's 264 platforms, 150
are curved. Since trains are straight, the distance between a car and a platform will be largest at the
point where the platform curves away from the train.
DoorsDoors
85 feet
DoorsDoors
REASON # 3 VERTICAL GAPS
The vertical distance between a train door and the platform can also trip up a passenger stepping on
or off the train.
• Train wheels wear down
by 2 inches in diameter
before they must be
replaced; trains ride high
on new wheels, then sink
as the wheels age.
• If a train is on a banked
curve, one side of the train
will be higher than the
other, tipping the door
below or above the edge
of the platform.
• The train’s suspension
system, which uses air bags,
also varies by a couple of
inches, depending on how
tightly the bags are inflated.
• Track repairs contribute
to train height. When a
section of track is
resurfaced, pebbles – or
ballast – are added, slightly
raising the track.
There are horizontal gaps and vertical gaps. At Port Jefferson station, a 15-inch horizontal gap is compounded by a
vertical gap of 6 inches. Wear on the wheels over time can result in the train sitting lower on some platforms.
NEWSDAY PHOTOS / JIM PEPPLER
tions to 10 inches on straight platforms
and 13 inches on curved ones.
Platform problems
Curved platforms require extra
space for trains to pass safely. In other
words, they need a bigger gap.
Think of a square inside a circle.
The corners are close to the circle’s
edge, while the straight sides are far-
ther away. That’s what a straight-sided
train car looks like next to a curved
platform. When laying track, engi-
neers must leave enough space for
each car’s corners to pass unscathed.
When a platform curves the other
way, engineers must ensure that the
middle of the car doesn’t scrape the
platform.
An industry standard adopted in
1913 barred the construction of stations
on sharp curves. The LIRR’s worst
gaps, such as the 15 1
/2-inch gap at Flat-
bush, are on curved platforms that pre-
date that rule.
Of the LIRR’s 125 stations, 50 are on a
curve, McGowan said. The railroad has
264 platforms, of which 150 are curved.
Of course, gaps occur on straight
platforms, too. At straight platforms,
obstructions on the rails — such as at
grade crossings, where streets cross
the tracks — can force engineers to set
tracks farther away from the platforms
of nearby stations.
Ragged platform edges can worsen
gaps on both curved and straight plat-
forms. This factor contributed to a
133
/4-inch gap on the straight platform
at Shea Stadium, according to LIRR of-
ficials. In August, maintenance crews
shifted the track up to 41
/2 inches clos-
er to the platform, the railroad said.
Vertical gaps
While much attention has focused on
horizontal gaps, the vertical distance be-
tween a train door and the platform can
also pose a problem, tripping up passen-
gers and increasing the risk of falls. A
Newsday measurement at Port Jeffer-
son station in October, for example,
found a 15-inch horizontal gap com-
pounded by a vertical gap of 6 inches.
Settling of tracks or platforms caus-
es some of the worst vertical gaps, forc-
ing riders to step up or down when
they get on or off the train.
The following are other factors af-
fecting vertical gaps:
Ⅲ On a banked curve, one side of the
train sits higher than the other, tipping
the door above or below the surface of
the platform.
Ⅲ Train wheels wear down by 2 inches
in diameter before they must be re-
placed. Trains ride high on new
wheels, then sink as the wheels age.
Ⅲ A train’s suspension system, which
uses air bags, also varies by a couple of
inches, depending on how much the
bags are inflated.
FACT: REDUCING GAPS HAS
NEVER BEEN AN INDUSTRY
OR REGULATORY PRIORITY.