Despite MTA Warnings, Passengers Continue to Self-Evacuate

It makes sense why the MTA tells passengers they should never self-evacuate from a train.

There's the danger of the electrified third rail, for one. And passengers who self-evacuate can't be accounted for. They can also cause trouble for other trains, by blocking traffic on the tracks. 

But on Tuesday morning, when an A train derailed in Harlem, some passengers decided not to wait. 

Taylor Davis was on that train. She said it stopped, the lights went out and people panicked, running and screaming. They also saw smoke and fire. "I would have stayed in place if someone said [to do that], and I had not seen a spark, a flame, or whatever I saw outside of that car door," she said. But she didn't hear any announcements.

Davis and others evacuated into the train's last car. But she understands why some people went out onto the tracks. "I don't know what else could have been done, besides us being like, we need to break through this glass and like, move," she said. 

Just last week, a man on a stalled F train jumped on to the tracks. And earlier this month, passengers stranded on another F train for nearly 45 minutes — without lights or air-conditioning — tried to pry the train's doors open. 

The MTA's Beth DeFalco said, "Customers should never leave a train on their own – it’s dangerous and potentially deadly and it requires us to shut down power to even more of the system, causing additional delays everywhere because of the safety hazard it presents." She said that customers should only leave a train if they are accompanied by train crew or first responders.