The city and the MTA have done nothing to prevent straphangers from getting shoved into subway trains or onto the tracks — even though it’s a “known problem,” contends a victim who was paralyzed in a terrifying attack.
Queens artist Emine Yilmaz Ozsoy was left with a broken neck and paralyzed from the chest down after a madman randomly pushed her into a departing F train on May 21, 2023 at around 6 a.m. at the Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station.
Those in charge of the subways “failed to take steps to protect [her] from a known problem of criminal and mentally unstable people pushing others into or in front of moving trains and set up proper safeguards and barriers for people waiting for the subway trains while they are on the platform,” according to the Manhattan Supreme Court case.
No platform barriers have been installed, and there is no plan to “prevent or reduce the frequency or severity of injuries to people on the platform from being pushed,” she argues in the legal papers.
Since 2020, 54 people have been fatally shoved onto subway tracks, according to reports.
The Jackson Heights woman, who is seeking unspecified damages, told The Post in February she was trying to leave the Big Apple for a chance to get accepted into the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis in Florida. Friends created a GoFundMe to assist in mounting medical bills.
Ozsoy also sued the train conductor for operating the locomotive “at an excessive rate of speed,” and accuses the EMTs who responded that day of failing to properly stabilize her neck and back as they got her out of the station and into the hospital.
Kamal Semrade, 39, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges for allegedly shoving Ozsoy. The criminal case is pending.
The MTA and the city Law Department declined comment.
