The growing controversy over subway deaths has stricken all parties involved in the transportation scene.

The MTA, stuck with little cash to maneuver, has provided flat solutions, including platform doors and laser alarm systems, that are getting nowhere because, given, the agency can't get past the whole price tag thing. The Transport Workers Union Local has informed its conductors to slow down but this advice was chastised by the MTA as a major service delayer. As a result, the emergency meeting called by Councilman Joe Vacca ended in a yelling match between the union and the agency. And then there's the NYPD, with its officers busy Big-Brother-ing the mentally ill.

Needless to say, this controversy has hit a brick wall... at the worst time possible.

In the past five days, seven people have been struck by a subway. Do the math: that's more than a person a day. If that's not enough reason to spark urgency to this situation, we seriously have no idea what is.

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Okay, the platform doors, laser alert system and the advice for conductors to slow down were one thing. But this goes a little above and beyond that.

Yesterday, news came that the NYPD, in accordance with the Health Department, has tracked down 25 mentally ill patients that have been deemed dangerous and on "mental hygiene warrants." And, contrary to the MTA and the Transit Workers Union, the NYPD has no problem going right ahead with this "solution" to the subway death problem.
Apparently, the law enforcement agency is using this "real life crime center" to arrest them, which we believe is similar to the one Morgan Freeman's character has access to in The Dark Knight.

In other words, the NYPD is on the lookout for those behind the subway incidents that have occurred over the past few months -- situations where innocent passerby's were pushed onto the tracks by said suspects, all of which have raised major concerns about subway safety in recent weeks. The "epidemic" even prompted an emergency hearing by Councilman Joe Vacca (except it basically turned into a yelling match between the MTA and the union).

We're still unsure if surveillance is the best or the creepiest way to combat this problem. Actually wait, no, the bloody MetroCards were. But this is a close second.

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NBC New York reports that a woman was struck and killed by a moving train today this morning after fainting on a subway platform at Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue Station in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights.

This death is but the latest in a barrage of recent subway deaths. Fifty-five people died last year after being pushed, falling, or jumping onto tracks.

Says NBC, "Brooklyn-bound 3 trains are running express from Atlantic Avenue to Utica Avenue, and some southbound 4 trains are rerouted. There are delays in both directions."

More updates as they come.