Put Safety First during your transit commute

June 11, 2012

Serious incident on SkyTrain a reminder:
put ‘Safety First’ during your transit commute
Passenger injured after trying to block closing train doors with shopping bag

A serious incident at SkyTrain’s New Westminster Station this morning serves as an important reminder to put safety first in your transit commute.

Just before 10 a.m. on June 11th, a female passenger started running down the inbound platform (trains heading to Waterfront Station) just as an awaiting SkyTrain’s doors began to close.  The passenger then appeared to throw her shopping bag, which was still attached to her left wrist, into the nearly shut doors. The bag was too small to prevent the doors from closing.

As the train began to move out of the station, the passenger ran beside the train for a few seconds before falling onto the platform.  Two other passengers who were waiting on the platform assisted the injured passenger until SkyTrain staff, firefighters and ambulance paramedics could arrive. 

The passenger suffered a cut to her head and other injuries although the seriousness of her injuries is not known at this time.

“Our focus is on our injured passenger and we hope she makes a full recovery,” says Fred Cummings, President and General Manager of BC Rapid Transit Company, the operator of SkyTrain’s Expo and Millennium Lines. 

“Given the seriousness of the incident, we also want to remind our passengers that just like when crossing a busy city street or commuting by bicycle or vehicle, there are certain precautions we should all take to keep our commutes safe.”

Transit users are always encouraged to walk – not run – in SkyTrain stations and bus loops and to step back from SkyTrain vehicle doors when the chimes sound and the doors are about to close.

Since SkyTrain opened in 1986, and with more than one billion rides provided, there have been about seven (7) similar incidents where passengers running on platforms for a SkyTrain have tried to stop the doors from closing using a small personal item and have suffered injuries, most of them minor.   The last incident was at Stadium Station in 2009 when an elderly female passenger tripped and fell on the platform after trying to use a plastic shopping bag to block the doors.  Fortunately, she was not badly hurt.