Medical examiner to determine what killed mom on subway stairs

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - A 22-year-old woman who was holding her daughter in a stroller was found dead inside a New York City subway station after reportedly taking a tumble down a set of stairs.

Police responded to a 911 call just before 8 p.m. Monday about an unconscious woman inside the Seventh Avenue B/D/E Station in Manhattan. They found the woman unresponsive and her 1-year old girl on the southbound platform.

EMS rushed Malaysia Goodson, of Stamford, Connecticut, to Mount Sinai West Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Medics treated the girl, identified by the New York Post as Goodson's daughter, at the scene. She was not hurt.

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Investigators will try to determine what caused Goodson to fall including whether she had some sort of a medical episode before the fall or if she was killed by the impact.

Only about a quarter of New York City's 472 subway stations have elevators, and the elevators that do exist are often out of service.

Parents and caregivers who ride the subways with young children become adept at carrying a stroller and child up and down the stairs. Bystanders will often pitch in to help, but not always.

Shams Tarek, an MTA spokesman, said the Seventh Avenue B-D-E station where Goodson fell does have escalators. Parents are generally advised not to ride escalators with strollers, however.

The lack of elevators makes it difficult for people in wheelchairs to use New York's subway system, and disability-rights activists have staged frequent protests over the issue.

Andy Byford, who was appointed the MTA's head of the subway system last year after running the Toronto Transit Commission, has set a goal of adding enough elevators to the system that after five years, no rider will be more than two stops away from an accessible station.

With the Associated Press