Stand clear of the closing doors, please!
A bumbling straphanger became trapped in an MTA turnstile gate at a Manhattan subway station after the doors clamped on either side of her neck as she apparently tried to take a fare-free ride, according to a wild viral video.
A woman dressed in a long black coat got a little ahead of herself when she was rushing to catch a train at the Broadway/Lafayette station.
An MTA worker on the other side of the gate was trying to pry the doors back open while she floundered helplessly, according to the video originally shared by a man named Juan Manuel.
Technicians told The Post that they suspect the woman was trying to sneak through the fare gate behind another commuter when the doors snapped shut.
One MTA employee explained that “this happens when two people try to get through the door together. The sensor picks that up and closes the door on the second person.”
A technician at a Bronx station told The Post that the snafu happened a few days ago. He explained that the only way to free someone from the gate’s jaws is to shut off the automated door and open it manually.
He added that the MTA is still testing the gates and have installed them at select stations.
John Raine, a 23-year-old New Yorker, said that the MTA’s turnstile overhaul is “dystopian.”
“It’s like having a controlling boyfriend,” he joked.
“That’s mad over engineering,” he added.
Mia Rade, a 34-year-old New Yorker, encouraged people to simply “pay attention” and “start paying for the MTA.”
“How stupid do you have to be to get your head stuck in there?” her tourist brother, 27-year-old Alex Rade, added.
Others online balked at the woman’s misfortune — and were quick to blame the MTA.
“Great. Now the MTA is guillotining people,” one user joked on Reddit.
“I guess whoever designed this didn’t think about human head decapitation. Can she sue for that???” another person wondered.
The NYPD said it did not have any record of the incident.
“This video is from the first hours of the pilot and was in the news then, as we responded to reporters last week. The equipment is being monitored, and as part of the pilot, we are keeping an eye on how the fare gates work,” the MTA told The Post in a statement Thursday night.
Similar automated doors are used at transit train stations in Boston — with limited success.
The alarms blare when the sensors catch two people shuffling through the doors at once, but they rarely close in time to snag the straggler.
The MTA has installed scores of new measures to disincentivize fare-skipping, including the fare gate and garish “fins” on old turnstiles.
The “fins” and “sleeves,” which will cost upward of $7 million to install in each of the city’s 472 subway stations, have done little to dissuade straphangers from dodging the ever-increasing fare.
Some crafty commuters are even using the hurdle-like “fins” to give themselves an extra boost.
The post Suspected fare-beating straphanger gets stuck in new MTA turnstile gate, wild video shows appeared first on New York Post.
