Please stand clear of the yellow line.
The MTA botched its inspections of the yellow strips that run along the edges of subway platforms — placing straphangers at risk of falling onto the tracks, the agency’s Inspector General Barry Kluger warned yesterday.
The investigation revealed visibly deteriorating yellow bars — called rubbing boards — at 23 of 27 stations last year that MTA workers classified as being safe, he said in a scathing, 17-page report.
Also, the agency is so backlogged on fixing the defective boards that the deadline for completing 59 percent of the work was pushed back from August 2008 to December 2009, the report said. “This is a safety concern,” Kluger said. “While it appears that [New York City Transit] has a program to keep the boards in good repair, the program they had in place just simply is not working.”
NYCT officials didn’t dispute most of the report, Kluger said.
Inspectors reviewed every rubbing board in the system and gave each a grade after a teenager fell onto the tracks at the Kings Highway Q-train station in January 2008 after putting his full weight on the strip.
The teen climbed to safety as a train pulled into the station.
“That’s pretty terrifying,” said Gaby Neal, 25, who was waiting for a V train at Rockefeller Center yesterday. “Now that’s it’s been brought to my attention, I won’t be standing on that anymore. I don’t want to be run over by a train.”
Other straphangers also decided to take a step back upon hearing the news.
“I don’t want to lose a foot,” said Claire Anderson, 22, who was waiting for an F train.
After the Queens incident, Kluger’s office found that inspection and clerical errors claimed many boards were safe when in fact they were faulty.
It “created a false impression of system safety and significantly delayed repair,” the report said.
Transit officials said they inspect the boards twice weekly and will now train supervisors to do so.
As of May, 911 platform edges were rated “good” and 211 were “fair,” with none in “poor” condition, said NYCT spokesman Charles Seaton.
“All platform edges are scheduled to be brought to ‘good’ condition before the end of this year,” Seaton said.
The boards are made with either wood or fiberglass and supported by bolts and angled pieces of metal.
In 2008, About 57 percent of the rubbing boards on the Astoria section of the N and W lines were rated in “poor” condition — the highest in the system.
That’s followed by the crosstown G, at 50 percent, and the Myrtle Avenue section of the M and Culver section of the F, with 36 percent each.