New York, NY, June 19--Straphangers on an East Side subway platform are slipping and falling on imported floor tiles that transit officials are installing in stations citywide, officials said Wednesday.
Riders have complained for the past two rain-filled weeks about the Italian-made porcelain and ceramic flooring after taking spills at the East 86th Street station on the Lexington Avenue line, said, according to Newsday.
Wednesday, New York City Transit technicians were examining whether the tiles on a section of the platform violated traction standards. The tiles are slated to fill the entire platform.
"It's wet enough for somebody to go sliding right over the edge," said Sarah Pujols, a nurse who was waiting for a downtown train Wednesday morning. "Do they know about this?"
Pete Sikora, 28, who in recent weeks has been leafletting outside the station for stronger laws against lead paint, said he has seen about a dozen people fall in recent weeks on similar tiles on the landing between staircases.
"It really is the sickest thing I've ever seen in the subways, and I've been a New Yorker all my life," he said.
Workers are laying the same flooring at other stations under repair, including Grand Central Terminal, said Deirdre Parker, a spokeswoman for NYC Transit.
"These are the tiles that we are currently using," she said. Speaking of the East 86th Street station, she said: "This is the only place where we've been made aware of a problem."
She said the company that makes the tiles, Caesar Ceramic of Rome, is expected to follow certain standards that might have been violated with this batch.
"We haven't gotten the results of the testing yet," she said. A representative of Dal-Tile, the Dallas-based company that imports the tiles, referred calls to the company's branch in Maspeth. There was no answer there Wednesday night.
After a reporter's inquiry, crews placed cones around the new tiles.
Parker said they would continue mopping and roping off the tiled area.
"There are people there monitoring the situation," she said. "It has been difficult, but we are aware of it."
Assemb. Jonathan Bing (D-Upper East Side) said he would call transit officials about the station, which he said has elicited complaints since workers began renovations there about a year ago. Those complaints were mostly about crowds and closed entrances, local residents said.
"We can't wait for someone to get injured for us to solve this problem," Bing said in a phone interview.
Passengers have complained for years about slippery floors on platforms and stations. A 1996 report commissioned by the transit agency found many of the tiles in new stations were treacherous when wet. Parker said those were different tiles.
Despite the entreaties of some riders, NYC Transit continues to use tile because, Parker said, "my understanding is that it's easier to clean, and maintain, and is more durable than, say, concrete or something."
