Mother's Deadly Fall Sparks Push For More Subway Elevators
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The family of a young mother who fell to her death while carrying a baby stroller down the stairs at a subway station made an impassioned plea to MTA board members Wednesday.
They begged transit officials to outfit more stations with elevators.
"I don't want nobody else's family to feel the pain that my family feels," the victim's cousin, Dontaysia Turner, said. "We talk about my cousin every day. She should still be here with us, she should still be here with us. I shouldn't be standing here talking on her behalf."
Malaysia Goodson was carrying her 1-year-old daughter in a stroller when she fell down the stairs at the Seventh Ave. station in Midtown.
The medical examiner determined a medical episode may have contributed to her death. But her family says the MTA is still to blame.
"Maybe had there been an elevator in there and she was in the elevator and passed out, we would still have my cousin. She would still be here," said Turner.
Instead, her daughter, who survived the fall without injury, will grow up without a mother.
Other riders agree changes need to happen, and several showed up to Wednesday's hearing to help push the agency to take action.
"It was an accident waiting to happen, and there was no elevator at that particular station for her to take the baby downstairs," Mary Kaessinger, of the People's MTA, said. "We absolutely need more elevators."
The board pledged to install 50 elevators in existing stations within the next five years.
Turner said she sees the pledge as a sign of progress but promised her fight to get elevators in every station will continue as long as it takes to get the job done.
