Every subway station will be equipped with new emergency exit gates so transit riders can quickly escape from a fire or a terrorist attack, the Daily News has learned.
"Panic bars," similar to those on emergency-exit doors in movie theaters, will be installed on subway station gates, located near turnstiles and stairwells to streets - allowing riders to get out without having to ask a token booth clerk to unlock the portals, authorities said.
Subways getting emergency exits
Every subway station will be equipped with new emergency exit gates so transit riders can quickly escape from a fire or a terrorist attack, the Daily News has learned.
“Panic bars,” similar to those on emergency-exit doors in movie theaters, will be installed on subway station gates, located near turnstiles and stairwells to streets – allowing riders to get out without having to ask a token booth clerk to unlock the portals, authorities said.
The News discovered a prototype in the process of being tested by the Transit Authority at the Lawrence St. station in downtown Brooklyn for more than a month. When pushed, the bar unlocks the gate in an unstaffed section of the station and sounds a loud alarm.
Nearly 1,370 swinging gates will be outfitted with panic bars by December 2006, TA President Lawrence Reuter told The News when asked about the Lawrence St. station.
“The idea is to [quickly] get you out of a station in any kind of emergency situation, be it a fire or smoke condition … any reason we need to evacuate the system,” Reuter said.
Reuter said he doesn’t believe the current setup at subway exits and entrances is unsafe, describing the new equipment as an “enhancement.”
But riders, elected officials and even Police and Fire department brass have expressed varying degrees of concern about the TA’s moves towards automation, including the removal of token booth clerks and the rise in the number of ceiling-to-floor barred turnstiles.
Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens) wrote to transit officials earlier this year that riders could find themselves “trapped behind gates like lower-class citizens.”
The News in July reported that the number of ceiling-to-floor turnstiles, called HEETS, have increased from 10 to 529 in the past eight years.
The new safety initiative is a response to riders’ concerns and has been in the works for a year, the TA said.
“This is exactly the kind of safety measure that the public appreciates,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.
At the Lawrence St. station, paralegal Doug O’Connell, 35, of Staten Island praised the move.
“When they took out the token booth they didn’t provide much safety,” he said. “Now, there’s more ways for people to get out if something is happening.”
