Federal Transit Administration boss Marc Molinaro has accused the MTA of ignoring its own safety rules following the 2023 death of a worker who was struck by a train, as well as a second incident last year in which a worker was hit, but survived.
Molinaro, a former New York GOP congressman, demanded the agency submit a third safety and risk assessment, arguing the prior two reports were “flawed” and threatening to cut funding if the transit authority fails to “adequately” account for “escalating risk trends.”
“I am disturbed by MTA’s failure to reinforce safety measures following serious accidents—one resulting in the death of a transit worker,” Molinaro told The Post.
“Secretary [Sean] Duffy has said time and again, safety is USDOT’s top priority, and we will not accept anything less than full accountability.”
Monilaro’s demand follows the November 2023 death of flagger Hilarion Joseph, 57, after he was fatally struck by an uptown D train near the 34th Street-Herald Square station.
The MTA held a safety refresher for work crew members in response to Joseph’s death, only to suffer a near-miss months later.
In June 2024, another flagger was hit by a F train at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station in downtown Brooklyn, surviving despite severe head trauma.
A FTA audit has found that employees of New York City Transit (NYCT), a division of the MTA which operates the city’s subways and buses, suffered 38 potential near-misses during 2023 alone — up from 24 such incidents in 2022 and 23 in 2021.
Between 2013 and 2020, by contrast, NYCT experienced just 25 potential near-misses.
Under the Biden administration, the FTA began demanding that NYCT produce a “comprehensive risk assessment” of its Roadway Worker Protection (RWP) program.
NYCT had presented its first safety risk assessment to the FTA in October 2024, then resubmitted a second one in January after the first got rejected.
The feds concluded that the reports failed to incorporate 2024 near-miss data as well as make proper risk calculations for worker exposure to danger, and did not properly classify overall risk.
“Internal audits conducted by NYCT over the last year … reveal numerous and recurring violations of critical RWP safety rules,” Molinaro told NYCT President Demetrius Crichlow Tuesday.
“These violations raise serious concerns that the procedures specifically designed to mitigate underlying safety risk are not being effectively implemented.”
Molinaro warned that NYCT will get one more chance to submit a proper report and that failure to do so would be viewed as a “pattern or practice of serious safety violations.”
“Failure … may lead FTA to take prompt enforcement actions …. including (1) directing NYCT to use Federal financial assistance to correct safety deficiencies; (2) withholding up to 25 percent of financial assistance … and (3) issuing restrictions or prohibitions as necessary and appropriate to
address unsafe conditions,” he warned.
The MTA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
