Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Oct. 25--The daughter of a dancer paralyzed after falling through the space between the platform and the train at the LIRR's Forest Hills station in 2004 said yesterday that had the railroad not brushed aside her family's concerns, other gap victims would have been saved from injury or death.
"For two years the LIRR has been ignoring my mother," said Jaci Rann, who said her mother, Sheila, 67, has been a quadriplegic since her fall. "They have not acknowledged my mother. Had they done that, I believe Natalie Smead would be alive today."
Smead, 18, of Northfield, Minn., was killed Aug. 5 after she fell through the gap at the Long Island Rail Road's Woodside station. Jaci Rann said that until Smead's death, LIRR officials dodged scheduled depositions in connection with the $50-million suit her mother filed against the railroad and refused to discuss the fall.
"It wasn't until Natalie's death that they finally started to acknowledge my mother by showing up for deposition," Rann said. "They just didn't feel it was important to them."
Rann had once been a Rockette and was a Broadway dancer until her fall on Oct. 4, 2004. Now she breathes only with help from a machine and has round-the-clock medical care at her Forest Hills home, her daughter said. Outside of Smead's death, Rann suffered one of the most serious injuries in recent years as a result of LIRR gaps.
Peter Smead filed a notice of claim Monday against the LIRR and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority asking for $5 million for his daughter's death. He told Newsday that he'd like to have a meeting with LIRR officials who did not fix known gap problems. Jaci Rann said she'd like to do the same thing.
"How do these people sleep at night knowing they haven't done anything?" she said.
LIRR spokeswoman Susan McGowan said the railroad will not comment on any aspect of the Smead and Rann cases.
"We do not comment on matters in litigation," she said.
Natalie Smead's death prompted gap investigations by the LIRR as well as state and federal officials. In addition, a Newsday investigation found gaps as wide as 15 inches at some stations. The gaps throughout the LIRR have caused more than 330 incidents from 2000 through last year, according to LIRR data.
LIRR moved 2,000 feet of track closer to the station at the Shea Stadium stop in time for the baseball playoffs and began work in recent days at the Jamaica station. The railroad plans to move tracks at six other stations, though there are no current plans to do so at Forest Hills or Woodside. After Smead's death, Newsday measured the gap at Woodside to be as wide as 11 inches, wider than the 7- to 8-inch gap the railroad considers to be its internal standard. The decision not to adjust the Woodside tracks frustrated at least one rider at the station yesterday.
"Somebody lost their life," said Carrie Krzyzanowski, 47, of Middle Island. "How could you not take care of it? If that person lost their life, why wouldn't you take the precaution for other people to not lose their lives?"
Staff writers Herbert Lowe and Jennifer Maloney contributed to this story.
-----
Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
