A geospatial analysis of subway-related fatalities in New York City (2008–2021)

The New York City (NYC) subway system is one of the largest rapid transit systems in the world. With an annual ridership of 1 billion people, subway-related fatalities present a significant public health concern. Properly contextualizing such fatality data is imperative to understanding relevant risk factors. This paper reviews all subway-related fatalities in NYC occurring between 2008 and 2021 (n = 838). Descriptive statistics for fatalities considered manner of death, decedent demographics, season of death, and day of the week when the death occurred. In addition, a geospatial approach was applied to map subway-related fatalities using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Fatality points were geocoded across NYC, and weighted density variables were calculated for each borough and manner of death. Weighted kernel density maps were generated in ArcGIS Pro to highlight hotspots of relative risk across the city and within each borough. Results indicate that suicides make up nearly half of all NYC subway-related fatalities (n = 409, 48.8%), followed by accidents (n = 277, 33%) and undetermined deaths (n = 143, 17.1%). Despite public concern surrounding being pushed onto subway tracks, homicides of this nature in NYC are undeniably rare (n = 9, 1.1% of all fatalities). The observed subway-related fatality trends are consistent with previous subway fatality research in NYC and also larger fatality (specifically suicide) trends in the United States. The geospatial distribution of subway-related fatalities, season of occurrence, and day of the week of occurrence are discussed, emphasizing the need for the targeted development of suicide-specific and accident-specific public health interventions.