Subway authorities tighten up on safety

• Source: Global Times
• [10:00 July 07 2010]
• Comments

By Chen Xiaoru

Subway authorities started tightening up on public safety procedures Tuesday, as the case of a woman who was dragged to her death by a subway train at Zhongshan Park station on Monday continues to develop.

Additional officers were dispatched to monitor subway platforms, where they instructed passengers not to board once train lights started flashing - a new measure aimed at keeping riders back at a safe distance when trains are preparing to depart from the station.

"There is also a sound alert system that beeps when the doors are about to close, and passengers should not try to squeeze into subways at the last minute when they hear the beeping noise," Yin Wei, vice director of public affairs for Shanghai Metro Operating Company, which oversees the Zhongshan Park station along the Line 2 subway where the woman died, told the Global Times Tuesday.

Yin said that passengers can avoid danger by following this simple rule.

The caution is being advised after a middle-aged woman was pulled some 10 meters by a subway train before ramming into a safety barrier, seconds after a security guard was unable to free her hand that got stuck in between subway doors.

She was taken to hospital, where she later succumbed to her injuries.

A preliminary investigation has found that the woman began boarding the train after its alert system had beeped four times, said Yin, adding that the doors are programmed to shut after the fifth and final beep.

Authorities are also looking into the possibility of a faulty sensor, which may have contributed to the incident at the station serving as an interchange for lines 2,3 and 4.

"The woman's hand was twisting in between the subway doors, and it appears that the sensor on the train failed to detect it," said Yin, declining to comment further on the ongoing case.

According to a professor from the Institute of Railway and Urban Mass Transit at Tongji University, the sensors used by trains along the Line 2 subway are older - and unlike the ones used on newer trains that are triggered by force - are prompted by the distance between the doors.

"Her hand may have been too thin for the sensors to pick up on when it got stuck between the doors," the man, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Global Times Tuesday, adding that he suspects this problem played a role in the tragedy.

Meanwhile, Internet users on local online forum KDS Tuesday questioned whether the subway driver ought to shoulder any of the blame.

Subway drivers are supposed to follow certain procedures to ensure passengers have safely boarded before leaving the station, according to Bao Hequn, a driver on the Line 13 subway.

"There is a calling and answering routine for subway drivers," he told the Global Times Tuesday. "We have to step out of the pit, look down the line and shout out loudly to officers on the platform to make sure the coast is clear before we drive out."

Authorities are working out a settlement for compensation with the woman's family, said Feng Hao, a press officer for subway operator Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, the company in charge of all of the city's subways, who declined to answer other questions from the Global Times Tuesday.