The MTA crewmembers aboard a Brooklyn subway train that dragged a man to death only learned of the tragic mishap after receiving a radio alert seven stops away, according to the preliminary findings of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation.
Yaw Adu Boahene, 57, was pulled into the tracks off the Manhattan-bound platform at the Utica Ave. subway station in Bedford-Stuyvesant by a passing A train around 5:45 p.m. on Sept. 28, the NTSB report shows.
As the train rumbled north, leaving Boahene with fatal injuries near the end of the platform, its crew remained unaware the victim had been dragged until they were informed via radio at the Jay St.-MetroTech station in Downtown Brooklyn more than three miles away.
NYC Transit president Demetrius Crichlow said last month that “the conductor has the responsibility of observing the platform… as they’re departing the station,” and “whether or not that was done is currently under investigation.”
Before he was dragged, Boahene was seen on the train car’s security cameras with a cane and a blue plastic bag, moving unsteadily toward the door after the train stopped at Utica Ave.
After disembarking from the ninth car in the 10-car train — made up of R211 cars, the newest in the subway fleet — Boahene was dragged by the train’s rear carriage, according to the NTSB report.
Boahene died at the scene.
An inspection of the train immediately after Boahene was killed revealed no issues with the train doors or the so-called “indication” system meant to prevent trains with obstructed doors from moving.
Investigators are still working to determine how Boahene was dragged by the train and ways to prevent similar tragedies.
While the NTSB has investigated multiple subway incidents in recent years — and is currently investigating the death of NYC Transit construction flagger Moet McCullum, who was killed on the job in early September — multiple transit sources said it was unusual for the feds to investigate an incident like Boahene’s dragging death.
The NTSB did not send investigators in 2024 when a man died after his arm got caught in the doors of an out-of-service Q train at the Prospect Park station, nor did the feds investigate a fatal 2022 dragging at the Q train’s Avenue M stop.
Asked why the feds had dispatched a team to Bed-Stuy, NTSB officials said they “have investigated similar dragging injuries and fatalities in the past” — and pointed to a 2021 investigation of a death in San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit system, in which a passenger was dragged to his death by his dog’s leash.
“Through this investigation, the NTSB is seeking to understand what happened, how it happened, and whether there are lessons or safety improvements that could help prevent similar accidents in the future,” NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said in a statement.