Union Issues Statements in Wake of NTSB Report on 2016 Flagging Fatality
TWU Local 100 released the following statements Wednesday about the National Transportation Safety Board report on the November 2016 subway accident that killed Local 100 member Louis Gray and seriously injured co-worker and Local 100 member Jeffrey Fleming as they were setting up flagging.
TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano said: "Louis Gray was a good man and a good employee, and MTA management failed to protect him. Louis died, and Jeffrey was badly injured, because of poor planning and a total lack of communication that night. The MTA needs to adopt the NTSB recommendations to prevent another tragedy like this from ever happening again. People don’t fully understand just how dangerous it is working in the subway or appreciate what transit workers do on a daily basis. They should.
Jack Blazejewicz, TWU Local 100 representative on the Track Safety Task Force, said: "100 has fought tooth and nail to increase roadway worker protection particularly when setting up and removing flags. Due to our pressure, NYCT has instituted a pilot program for a worker to notify the train operator face to face that there are workers on the roadbed setting up flagging. The pilot has been working great with zero train delays. NYCT should adopt the NTSB recommendations and expand the pilot program system wide to ensure another tragedy like Louis Gray never happens again."
The report can be found here: