A 57-year-old Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employee died on Wednesday morning, November 29, after being struck and dragged by a subway train in Manhattan.
Hilarion Joseph was performing his duties as a flagger for a road cleaning crew near the 34th Street-Herald Square station when the accident occurred.
The incident happened about 150 feet south of the station. Joseph was part of a crew working on the subway tracks when an in-service uptown D train, operating on the express track, fatally struck him. The accident took place just before 12:20 a.m. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Joseph, an Army veteran and father of six, had been employed by the MTA for nearly a year.
Following the incident, the MTA has taken immediate action by suspending all non-essential track work in order to review and reinforce safety protocols to prevent future tragedies.
The accident is part of a concerning trend of incidents involving MTA workers and subway trains. In 2022, the MTA reported 234 incidents of people coming into contact with trains, a significant increase from previous years. The incidents, which included 88 deaths and multiple track incursions, highlighted the risks associated with subway operations and maintenance.
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation.
