A young mother has died ager falling down the stairs of a New York City train station while carrying her one-year-old baby in a stroller.
Malaysia Goodson, 22, was found unresponsive in a Manhattan subway station around 8 pm on Jan. 28. New York police said Goodson was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Her daughter was not seriously hurt. She was found conscious and treated at the station, according to the NYPD.
The tragedy has caused outrage among many parents who are forced to carry strollers up and down subway stairs or rely on strangers for help. In New York, only a quarter of the city’s 500 stations have elevators, making them inaccessible to people in wheelchairs and difficult to navigate for parents and older people.
In a statement, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman, Shams Tarek, said: “This is an absolutely heartbreaking incident. While the ultimate cause of the event is being investigated by the MTA, medical examiner and the NYPD, we know how important it is to improve accessibility in our system.”
The city comptroller, Scott Stringer, said: “As a parent, one of my biggest fears was navigating my kids’ double stroller through our broken subway system. And it isn’t uncommon because only 24% of stations have elevators. It’s completely unacceptable. My heart goes out to [Goodson’s] family.”
“This is a heartbreaking tragedy that never should have happened,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter. “The subway system is not accessible for everyone and that’s an environment the MTA should not allow.”
Our thoughts go out to the Goodson family.
