Gail Buffalo says she suffered several facial injuries simply exiting through the new fare gates at the 23rd Street-Baruch College station.
“The door slammed in my face,” Buffalo said. “It felt like I had been punched.”
There were cuts to her forehead, lip and gums, and she thought her dental work was broken.
What You Need To Know
One woman says the new fare gates at 23rd Street-Baruch College closed on her as she was exiting, causing cuts and bruising to her face and gums
A second rider had them close on his face, causing a gash in his forehead
The MTA says they are constantly learning and adjusting the gates, and the number of incidents has gone down from when the pilot program started in December
The three new models of fare gates to modernize the system are being tested in about 14 stations — soon to be 20 — all paid for and closely watched by the companies vying for a contract to eventually install them at 150 stations
“I had a cut here. My gum was bleeding, and the next morning I noticed I was nicked here. I had this nick and then my mouth,” Buffalo said. “And then by three or four days later, I developed the black eye.”
It happened on Jan. 29, shortly after the new gates were installed. Buffalo looked online and started to see videos like one viral clip of a woman with her head stuck in one set of doors.
She felt the MTA was not doing enough to help riders understand how to use the gates.
“If we don’t take a step back and learn how these doors, you know, work best — I felt like I was a guinea pig,” Buffalo said.
She’s not alone — as NY1 exited the train to meet her, we saw a man who had just been hit by the gates and had a gash on his forehead.
NY1 reached out to the MTA to find out how many of these incidents there have been and are awaiting a response.
“The number of what we call incidents have gone down dramatically since the beginning of the pilot,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said.
The MTA is apparently working on some educational videos.
“Members of my team were out there filming videos and preparing and creating customer explainers, which we’re going to roll out soon,” Shanifah Rieara, the MTA’s chief customer officer, said. “But we are looking at signage and updating that information.”
The MTA says over 1 million people have gone through the three new models of gates since the pilot program started in December.
The gates are designed to modernize the system and are being tested in about 14 stations — soon to be 20 — all paid for and closely watched by the companies vying for a contract to eventually install them at 150 stations.
While they may be new to New Yorkers, they have been tested elsewhere. The model at 23rd Street is being used in San Fransisco’s BART system, but it’s no consolation for Buffalo.
“If policymakers decide to use doors like this, they need to fix them, because these doors are clearly not working and they’re clearly not safe for families in the city,” she said, sharing the concerns she has about walking through them with her young daughter.
The MTA says they are being fixed.
“We’re still learning and we’re still making adjustments,” Lieber said.