Transit Worker Injured When Struck by Train While Doing Flagging

A New York City Transit worker doing construction flagging in The Bronx was hit by a 6 train Nov. 11 near the Castle Hill Ave. station.

"The incident is under investigation, and the employee sustained non-life-threatening injuries to the wrist," NYC Transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said.

The train was not carrying passengers, he added, while declining to release the name of the worker, who is employed in the authority's Rapid Transit Operations Division.

Makes Case Against Centralizing

Transport Workers Union Local 100 Power Division rep Thomas Creegan said the incident underscored his opposition to an attempt by NYC Transit to centralize flagging into one department. Currently, RTO workers flag for contracted workers while Maintenance of Way workers flag for workers in their divisions.

"We flag for ourselves and we don't have a problem flagging for ourselves," he said.

But Local 100 President Roger Toussaint said in May that centralizing flagging would make subway infrastructure work safer because a majority of members believed that "different interpretations of flagging rules by different titles and divisions were a major factor in causing safety problems."