By Brian Bohl

A new evil force is threatening to supersede terrorism, global warming, blizzards, diseases and property taxes as the No. 1 threat for Long Island residents.

According to print accounts, television investigations and radio reports, train gaps on Long Island Rail Road platforms are emerging as the primary cause of injury to thousands of helpless commuters who put their lives in danger every time they venture to commute into the city.

For years it seemed it was safe to make the leap from concrete platforms onto a stationary train. Only now, we are told a pandemic is on our hands. Everyday, there are new reports about people falling into gaps and tripping on insurmountable wedges while Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials ignore the problem.

But before we demand wholesale changes at all of the LIRR’s 124 stations, consider some cold hard statistics instead of the sensationalized account of a Pulitzer-hungry newspaper.

There were 56 cases of gap-related accidents, according to a CBS report. That sounds like a high number, until you consider that the rail road serves roughly 81 million people per year. In fact, an MTA investigation found that the number of gap accidents averaged less than one per one-million rides.

A dispassionate analysis of the accident-ratio shows that the “gap problem” is actually an abnormality as opposed to a growing threat to commuters. Over 900 accidents were reported over the past 11 years, but again consider those incidents in the broader context. For a conservative estimate, let’s say the LIRR serviced an average of 60 million customers per year over that time span. That works out to 660 million riders compared to fewer than 1,000 gap accidents, which should negate some of the hysteria.

External pressure is still forcing the LIRR to address the situation by spending $13 million to fix 22 stations. In the context of the multi-billion dollar MTA budget, that investment is not a particularly poor one. It is still a sizable amount, and since the LIRR is publicly owned, it will be coming out of your pocket.

As it stands now, an off-peak round-trip ticket from Hempstead to Penn Station is $11.40-four dollars more if the ticket is used from 6-10 a.m. or 4-8 p.m. University students who need to travel to New York City for internships that are often uncompensated must pay a sizable amount just to make it in to work, but the new safety measures could make ever-increasing ticket prices even more expensive. The fact that a monthly pass costs $174 from the closest station to the University should be the subject of the public’s ire instead.

Consider the type of people who claim they have suffered train-gap related injuries. Granted, some stations make it difficult for elderly people with disabilities to board, though others do possess supplemental platforms that extend from the concrete to the train, making them wheelchair accessible.

Not all stations make it easy for the disabled and improvements should be made to ensure a safe passage. No argument here.

What is troubling is that some people who claim they were victims of the gap attack are not usually elderly or suffer from medical conditions. They are full-grown men and women who simply failed to pay attention and subsequently want to pin the blame on others.

Consider that September television report that interviewed Nihal Mehta, a marketing firm CEO who says he fell through a gap at the Shea Stadium station. The story initially sounded like an inexcusable problem on the LIRR’s end, until this comment put the incident in perspective:

“I wasn’t looking where I was going,” Mehta said. “All of a sudden I just plummeted through a large gap in between the train and the platform.”

Apparently Mehta’s college education curriculum didn’t include a warning to be observant while walking. Using tax-payer money to increase safety is fine, but funds should not be dispended feverously to idiot-proof a system in which common sense is the only thing required to ensure an uneventful ride.

Setting off this type of chain-reaction and increase in coverage was the August death of Minnesota teenager Natalie Smead. The 18-year-old was drunk when she fell between the platform and onto the tracks at the Woodside station, though the fall itself did not kill her. Against the advice of others, she crawled under a concrete platform and was struck by an oncoming train, according to New York’s Public Transportation Safety Board report.

While Smead’s death was tragic, the report said. “The young woman’s acquaintances and railroad personnel immediately gathered about her, telling her not to move and that they would get her out.

“Our finding is that the railroad was in compliance … with state and federal law.”

In nearly every subsequent Newsday report on a train gap story, Smead’s death is brought up. The circumstances involving the accident is usually omitted, making it seem as if the gap itself caused the fatality with no mention of alcoholism and the fact she decided to move to another track against caution.

Smead’s death was preventable, but everyday activities can turn deadly when one is inebriated. Before pouring in millions of dollars and printing countless stories about a trend, we must take into consideration all the circumstances before turning a relatively minor matter into an artificial panic.

Brian Bohl is a junior print journalism student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].