Corpses Stored in Break Rooms in New York City Subways

NEW YORK (AP) — It's a largely overlooked but gory reality of the New York City subway system: When someone takes their life by jumping in front of a train, police need to find a place to put the mutilated body until a medical examiner truck arrives. Sometimes, transit workers say, that place is their break room or bathrooms. And naturally, they don't like it. Some say they have been traumatized by unexpectedly coming upon a stowed body. "The subway isn't supposed to be New York City's temporary morgue," said John Samuelsen, president of Transport Workers Union International. In one of the latest cases Wednesday, the body of a man found on a Manhattan subway train after he apparently died of natural causes was bagged and stashed in an out-of-service employee bathroom. Authorities had no immediate word on how long the man's body was there. But station agents claim it can take hours before bodies are moved from employees-only areas, increasing the odds they'll stumble upon them, said TWU Local 100 representative Derick Echevarria. Workers have been "surprised and shocked by this," Echevarria said. "These are places where people take breaks, eat food, store their clothes." The union has received about a dozen complaints in the past year, including some alleging workers were exposed to messy remains, union officials say. Local 100 raised the issue with the Metropolitan Transit Authority twice in the same period, they add, but the complaints go back...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: News Operations Source Type: news