Walking the subway tracks can kill you, MTA officials warned Saturday after reports of a second incident in which frustrated straphangers fled a train stalled in a tunnel short of a station.
The warning came after an incident on a 5 train at about 4:23 p.m. Wednesday afternoon in Brooklyn. A man walking between cars fell to the tracks just south of the Franklin Avenue station, the MTA said.
The 5 train’s brakes engaged, bringing it to a stop. Its conductor got off the train and found the injured man.
Meanwhile, the operator of a 3 train moving on adjacent tracks saw the injured man between the express and local tracks. At 4:37 p.m., the 3 train stopped and its crew announced: “Someone is on the roadbed that is too close to the train to proceed. We are waiting for additional instructions.”
One minute later, at 4:38 p.m., the conductor on the 3 train was ordered to walk the tracks to check the incident.
Soon afterward — at about 4:46 p.m., after the 3 train had been stopped for just nine minutes — a group of 20 to 30 of its passengers decided to walk the tracks to the next station, despite the train conductor’s loud protests.
“Customers should never leave a train on their own. It’s dangerous and potentially deadly and it requires us to shut down entire lines and delay thousands of other customers because of the safety hazard it presents,” said MTA spokeswoman Beth DeFalco.
The man who fell to the tracks was declared dead at Kings County Hospital.
Exasperated customers taking matters into their own hands and jumping out of subway trains to walk on the tracks is becoming a trend.
On Tuesday morning, two men who got tired of sitting in a stalled F train got out and walked to the 34th Street station. One of those men told The Post that he did it so he wouldn’t be late to his new job.
Delays in the subway system have become chronic in the past few months, with rider often unsure if they’ll make it to work or home on time.
The agency is feverishly trying to fix the problems, which are mostly caused by aging infrastructure and record ridership.
They’ve instituted a “six-point plan,” and MTA CEO Ronnie Hakim said on Monday that they’re doing a top-to-bottom review of the system. Gov. Cuomo also tapped former MTA chief Joe Lhota to come back to his role as chairman.
Watch: Desperate straphangers walk the tracks after fleeing stalled train