Federal Audit Orders M.T.A. to Improve Subway Worker Safety

Federal transportation officials said on Wednesday that the death of a transit worker who was hit by a train in November, as well as a rising number of “near-miss” incidents on train tracks last year, reflected unsafe conditions and practices that were putting transit employees at growing risk.

In an audit, the Federal Transit Administration counted 38 events in which track workers were involved in close calls in 2023. That tally was up from 24 incidents in 2022 and 23 in 2021.

The majority of the dangerous events were caused by the failure of transit employees to “comply with key safety rules and established procedures,” according to the F.T.A.

Half of the “near-miss” incidents last year involved one or more transit workers who failed to follow proper procedures while flagging — the job of notifying trains when workers are on the tracks. Other incidents involved factors such as improper communication and radio use, inadequate protection and train operator inattention. A “near-miss” incident is defined as an event in which death or injury is narrowly avoided and typically happens when a worker is struck by a train, steps on the third rail or slips and falls on the tracks.

“The volume of close calls is pretty worrying,” said Jim Mathews, chief executive of the Rail Passengers Association, an advocacy group. “If you work in and around the subway, you’ve had an awful lot of close calls, and eventually close calls catch up to you.”

The F.T.A., which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, drew up a list of remedies for the unsafe working conditions that included an updated safety plan from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the city’s transit network.