A 57-year-old Brooklyn man was killed on the tracks at a Bedford-Stuyvesant station Monday evening after his shopping bag reportedly snagged in the doors of a departing A train.
Fox News reported that Yaw Boahene was found on the tracks of a northbound A train at the Utica Avenue station shortly after 6 p.m.
Police said he was unconscious and unresponsive. Responding paramedics pronounced him dead. An investigation into the cause of death was launched.
The New York Times, cited in the Fox report, said Boahene was exiting the train around 6 p.m. when his shopping bag got stuck in the closing doors, dragging him beneath the train.
Commuters caught and dragged by subway trains are described as exceedingly rare. They still happen.
In October 2022, 20-year-old Joseph Ancona was killed at the Columbus Circle station when his bag was caught in a door. The bag dragged him onto the tracks before a train fatally struck him, FOX 5 New York reported at the time.
Months before that incident, 37-year-old Marcus Bryant got caught between a Q train and the platform at a Brooklyn station. He fell onto the tracks and was killed.
In 2019, 39-year-old Vicente Alatorre died after a train dragged him into a tunnel at Grand Central Station. Authorities first believed clothing or a bag had caught in the doors. They later said that was not the case, according to The Times.
A 911 call brought officers to the Utica Avenue station. Boahene, of Brooklyn, was found on the northbound A tracks. Beyond the police description of his condition and the paramedics’ pronouncement, few official details have been released.
The bag-in-doors account is reported, not locked down as a final official finding. Investigators have not publicly closed the question of exactly how he ended up under the train. No other injuries, service disruptions, or operator statements were detailed in the initial reporting.
For riders who pack shopping bags, backpacks, and rolling carts onto crowded platforms every day, the pattern is plain enough. When doors close on a strap, a handle, or a piece of clothing, the margin for error disappears in seconds.
New York’s subway moves millions. Most trips end without incident. The ones that do not leave families with a body on the tracks and a city waiting on an investigation.
Rare is not the same as safe enough, not when a shopping bag can still pull a man under a train.
