{"id":1047686,"date":"2026-09-06T22:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1047686\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T22:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T22:12:19","slug":"subway-operator-who-struck-and-killed-bronx-trackworker-was-going-full-speed-despite-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1047686\/","title":{"rendered":"Subway operator who struck and killed Bronx trackworker was going full speed despite warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The subway operator who fatally struck a trackworker<\/a> in the Bronx was warned a work crew was on the tracks ahead \u2014 but later told the victim\u2019s supervisor he still went at normal speed because he didn\u2019t see any lights alerting him to their presence, according to an internal report.<\/p>\n

The operator\u2019s train struck Moet McCullum, 41, who was setting up flagging lights on the tracks between 167th St. and 161st St. along the D line<\/a> in Highbridge about 11:30 p.m. Thursday, MTA officials said.<\/p>\n

The crew sent out an \u201cadvance flagger,\u201d stationed at 167th St. directly before the work zone, whose job it was to warn oncoming train operators of workers up ahead.<\/p>\n

And that flagger did so, according to what the crew\u2019s supervisor said in the MTA\u2019s preliminary report, which was obtained by the Daily News.<\/p>\n

\"MTA<\/p>\n

Courtesy of family<\/p>\n

MTA worker Moet McCullum was killed by a D train in the Bronx. (Courtesy of family)<\/p>\n

Even without seeing any flagging lights, after receiving the warning from the advance flagger, the operator should have traveled at restricted speed and used extreme caution until reaching the next station, a source familiar with subway operations said.<\/p>\n

The crew was out of visual range of the advance flagger and so should have, as a matter of protocol, told the rail control center to hold all train service until the flags were set up, a source told The News. They did not do so, the source said.<\/p>\n

The crew also had a lookout, who descended onto the tracks at the north end of the 161st St. station, followed by a train service supervisor, then by two construction flaggers, one of them McCullum, according to the report.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News<\/p>\n

(Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The train service supervisor said he he felt the wind, heard a train coming around the curve and saw headlights, and the lookout blew the whistle for everyone to clear up, or get off the tracks, the report states.<\/p>\n

McCullum, a mother of three, froze and was fatally struck, according to the train service supervisor\u2019s account in the report.<\/p>\n

The train service supervisor also stated that he spoke to the train\u2019s operator, who told him he\u2019d been warned verbally by the advance flagger of the presence of the work crew, according to the report.<\/p>\n

MTA spokesman Tim Minton said multiple investigations into McCullum\u2019s death are underway, including one by the National Transportation Safety Board and a joint probe by union officials and New York City Transit\u2019s Office of System Safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts will be determined and then any necessary actions will be taken,\u201d Minton said. \u201cThere is no higher priority than safety, and we are confident that the investigations will proceed and comprehensibly determine what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCullum had only worked for the MTA for 11 months. She usually worked as a train conductor but was assigned to track maintenance on Thursday, her family says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (operator) was told that there was flaggers in the tunnel before he left the station. He still proceeded to go in the tunnel full speed,\u201d said Thomas Tyrell,<\/a> McCullum\u2019s brother-in-law, who\u2019s married to her twin sister. \u201cIt was said he didn\u2019t see the yellow, but when you\u2019re going through the tunnel and you know there\u2019s flaggers, slow down. You\u2019re supposed to be driving slow. And he didn\u2019t do that. He just came in full speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t supposed to be going too fast,\u201d he added. \u201cSimple.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFlagging\u201d \u2014 the act of warning oncoming trains that there are track workers up ahead \u2014 is regarded as among the more dangerous tasks in subway track work.<\/p>\n

NYC Transit worker Hilarion Joseph was also in his first year on the job when he was struck by a D train and\u00a0killed while flagging for a track-cleaning crew<\/a>\u00a0in November 2023.<\/p>\n

Another flagger, not publicly identified, suffered severe head trauma in 2024\u00a0after he was hit by an out-of-service F train in Brooklyn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both incidents were cited in\u00a0a scathing Federal Transit Administration assessment<\/a>\u00a0in 2024, which demanded that the MTA\u00a0improve its safety procedures<\/a>\u00a0and that the state\u2019s Public Transportation Safety Board\u00a0step up its oversight<\/a>\u00a0of New York City Transit.<\/p>\n

The MTA appealed that report, saying the findings mischaracterized the agency\u2019s safety record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The subway operator who fatally struck a trackworker in the Bronx was warned a work crew was on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1047687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,8471,2451,3059,5295,1370,728,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5293,5321,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1047686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-bronx","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117226397563673405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1047686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1047686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1047687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1047686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1047686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1047686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}