Every subway rider does it — and the MTA wants you to know it’s deadly.
Transit officials are launching a widespread campaign to warn riders to steer clear of the platform’s edge, following dozens of incidents last year in which people were struck and killed by trains.
Subway cars, stations and platforms were plastered this week with color posters warning, “Don’t become a statistic.”
Those posters — in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Russian — feature a colorful rendering of a person peering down the tunnel for a train next to the admonition, “Standing at the platform edge is dangerous!”
As if that’s not enough, the agency is also releasing a flood of Facebook and Twitter messages telling riders, “Stand away from the platform’s edge.”
Changing straphanger behavior, however, is likely easier said than done.
F train rider Marilyn Bravo said she’d still keep peeking her head over the platform for one simple reason.
“The train takes forever!” the 18-year-old said at the Jamaica-179th Street stop. “I want to see if I can see it coming.”
Last year, 146 people were struck by subway trains, with 47 killed.
It’s a slightly higher number than in 2010, when 127 people were struck by trains. Of those, 51 were killed.
The statistic for riders hit includes people struck while leaning over from the platform and those who deliberately climbed onto the tracks to retrieve dropped cellphones, purses and other personal items.
Because of that, the new campaign also includes warnings to riders against climbing onto the tracks to pick up dropped property: “Drop something? Leave it!”
It instructs riders to call subway personnel if they do drop something.
In many cases, subway workers use a long device called the “claw” to safely grab the dropped item off of the track.
“This is an issue that we take extremely seriously,” said Cheryl Kennedy, vice president of system safety for NYC Transit.