On Jan. 28, a young mother fell to her death while trying to carry her 1-year-old baby's stroller down a stairway in a New York City subway station. The tragic accident occurred at Manhattan's Seventh Avenue station near 53rd Street.
According to media reports, the victim, a 22-year-old resident of Connecticut, was found unconscious in the subway station at approximately 8 p.m. Her baby girl was found conscious nearby. The victim's exact cause of death has yet to be determined, but the medical examiner's office is investigating the case. Her daughter was reportedly placed in the custody of her father and grandmother.
The Seventh Avenue subway station is one of the hundreds in the city that do not have working elevators. In fact, of the city's 472 subway stations, only 25 percent are accessible to people in wheelchairs or who have trouble using stairs or escalators, such as parents carrying strollers and people with luggage. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has promised to significantly increase the installation of elevators in subways over the next five years, claiming that riders will find elevators at around every third stop by 2025. In 2017, the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York filed state and federal lawsuits against the MTA for allegedly violating the New York City Human Rights Law by failing to install enough elevators in subway stations. Both suits are ongoing.
Individuals injured in a slip-and-fall accident on public property may have grounds to file a premises liability lawsuit against the owner of the property for the losses that have been sustained. If a person is killed in such an accident, an attorney might recommend the filing of a wrongful death lawsuit.
Source: Jezebel, "A Young Woman Fell and Died Trying to Carry Her Baby's Stroller In a Subway Station With No Elevator", Anna Merlan, Jan. 29. 2019