Nov 11, 2005 11:25 pm US/Eastern
Subway Doors Are Not To Be Taken For Granted
Incident in Seoul Shows The Importance Of Train Safety
by Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Some lessons should be learned from the horrific video of the woman who tried to use her stroller to prop open the doors of a subway in Seoul, South Korea.
The thin straps of the stroller got caught in the door and to the shock of everyone who has seen the video, the train started to pull away with the woman and her baby in tow. The woman's friend realized what was going on and she, too, got caught up in the moving train before the operator realizes what's happening and stops.
Transportation experts say such dragging incidents are rare because of sensors that signal if the doors aren't fully closed.
"The signal to the guy driving the train was that the doors were fully closed so the train can start," said Robert Paaswell, a professor at CUNY. "Ordinarily, that doesn't happen. Ordinarily, if you have a fraction of an inch more, the door signal will indicate that the door isn't closed and there's a locking device."
But the sensors are only so sensitive. CBS 2 cameras caught a woman at 72nd street calmly using a folded stroller to keep a door open. This worked out the way it usually does, but it was still a gamble, with extremely high stakes.
"I think it's really dumb," Paaswell said. "There's always another train, always another station. Be safe, especially with a kid. Never use your kid or an umbrella or something as a jamming device."
The train operator in Korea could also have avoided the incident by looking at the station video we showed you. The lesson is that no amount of technology will make subways foolproof. If the doors are closing, let them or risk taking a ride you hadn't bargained on.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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