NYC subway dragging death reveals a hidden danger that puts every rider at risk

Gov. Kathy Hochul still can’t protect New Yorkers from subway violence, as last week’s unprovoked knifing murder on a Queens J train reminded us. 

And crime is magnifying another peril: the risk that a train will run you over.

To address both risks, Hochul should direct the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority to update union work rules and make everyone safer.  

Last week, with no warning, an “emotionally disturbed” person repeatedly stabbed construction worker Mesias Lojano as the train both were riding neared Woodhaven Blvd.

Lojano, 59, was the subway system’s sixth murder victim of the year.  

His death is yet another reminder that subway carnage remains far worse than it was before 2020.

From 1997 to 2019, the decades before Albany implemented criminal justice “reforms,” New York City experienced an average of two transit murders each year.  

But from 2020 through last year, perpetrators have killed an average of seven mass-transit riders annually — and we’re on track to meet or exceed that figure for 2026.  

Through August, felony assaults are up 10% from last year, to 435 — a total that’s 84% higher than the comparable figure from 2019.  

One problem is that the state and city still go too easy on repeat offenders.

In this latest case, police had arrested alleged killer Jyrell Thomas just weeks before, for theft from a Bronx Target and for attempting to flee.

But he went free, even though petty theft often isn’t an economic crime, but a cry for help from a disordered mind.  

The pervasive atmosphere of violence has impacted subway staff, too.

Through July, subway workers have suffered 42 assaults, up from 37 for the same period last year, and skyrocketing from just 16 in the first seven months of 2019. 

Workers terrified of violence can’t do their jobs.

Last Monday subway passenger Yaw Boahene, who appeared to be disabled, was killed after being dragged along the platform when he tried to exit the A train at Brooklyn’s Utica Ave.

It’s not yet clear what happened, but the train may have snagged upon an object that Boahene, 57, was holding, pulling him along and under. 

The conductor should have been looking out his car’s window to prevent just such a tragedy.

But according to Gothamist, the conductor on this train had suffered a previous on-the-job assault — and so was wary of poking his head out of the car. 

The fear is justified: Last year, a repeat offender slashed conductor Lynette Pierce as she performed this safety check, and in 2024 another attacker slashed a different conductor’s neck.  

The governor could cut crime and protect transit workers by asking the Transport Workers Union to revise the conductor’s role.  

As the MTA continues to add technology that allows trains to all but run themselves, train operators could use full camera coverage on platforms to ensure that passengers are clear of the moving cars.  

The conductor, meanwhile, could be tasked with scanning full camera coverage inside the train to look out for the dangers that rightly make passengers fearful: people smoking and using drugs in train cars, panhandling, menacing riders or otherwise acting strangely.

Police at stops further down the line could remove such offenders.  

Unusually, the federal National Transportation Safety Board is investigating last week’s passenger death, as well as last month’s death of a subway worker, track flagger Moet McCullum.

A Bronx subway train hit McCullum on Sept. 3 as she walked along a live track to help set up a construction site.  

NTSB investigators shouldn’t be shy about suggesting to the MTA and the TWU that properly deployed technology can save lives and improve safety for both riders and workers. 

Tech could even supplement some track workers’ duties: Cameras and other sensors on trains can detect track defects before human eyes can.

The MTA is working with Google on a pilot to see if automated inspection can prevent some service disruptions — and avoid the need for some human track flaggers — by finding flaws sooner. 

The union has resisted changes to conductors’ duties, worried that automation will reduce jobs.

That’s an understandable fear, as some transit advocates push for MTA to run trains with no workers aboard at all, the way Paris does on some lines.

The union is right that those suggesting this idea are living in fantasy land: It would be beyond reckless to send packed trains, often holding upward of 2,000 people, through an environment of crime, disorder, potential e-bike fires and other unpredictable but foreseeable crises without trained humans in control.  

But with the TWU’s contract with the MTA currently in negotiations, the governor and the union could show that they can compromise — and collaborate to improve life for workers and passengers — without job cuts.  

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal and a 2026 senior fellow at the CCNY Moynihan Center.