A New York City man has been killed after his shirt got stuck in a subway escalator and strangled him.
Police responded to a call at 3.45am on Sunday at a Bronx subway station, only to find the man at the top of the escalator unconscious. Police say that the 48-year-old’s shirt was partially caught in the escalator, while the other part choked him.
An effort was made to save the man’s life after police cut the shirt off of the man, but he was pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital.
New York City’s subway system sees around one death per week from people who are struck by trains as they arrive in the station. In 2016, for instance, a total of 48 people were killed, marking the lowest year-end total in five years.
All told, 168 people were struck in 2016 by trains, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
New York City’s subway system has been experiencing a bizarre trend in recent years, with more people reportedly going onto the train tracks voluntarily than is normally seen.
There were 900 incidents in 2017 in which people got onto the tracks or were hit by a train because they got too close to the edge.
“In New York, we have more incidents of people on the tracks than anywhere else I’ve worked,” Andy Byford, the subway’s leader, toldThe New York Times in an interview discussing the issue.
