When NYC was hit by a massive blizzard nearly four-years ago, some people got a nice snow day, but for 500 riders on the A-train it was a claustrophobic ordeal in which they were stranded in freezing temperatures for about 10 hours. Now the MTA has settled with 38 victims of the malfunction. They’ll each be paid $2500 each for the terrifying situation in which they were unable to leave the train, trapped with no food, water or heat.
While $2500 seems like a nice payout, it has been a long-time to wait and the victims see it mostly as a token price for the MTA, who have never apologized for the incident.
Aymen Aboushi, a lawyer who worked pro-bono on the case puts it bluntly, “Governments don’t apologize — they pay.” He says their main concern was getting better oversight put in place and a customer advocate who will have strap hangers interests at heart in times of crisis.
The MTA says they’ve created that position after the incident, and their decision had nothing to do with the lawsuit. With a possibly brutal winter coming up, subway riders may find themselves in need of the new advocate.
(Photo: MTA)
