They Witness Deaths on the Tracks and Then Struggle to Get Help

"Edwin Guity was at the controls of a southbound D train last December, rolling through the Bronx, when suddenly someone was on the tracks in front of him. He jammed on the emergency brake, but it was too late. The man had gone under the wheels. Stumbling over words, Mr. Guity radioed the dispatcher and then did what the rules require of every train operator involved in such an incident. He got out of the cab and went looking for the person he had struck."

"I didn't want to do it, Mr. Guity said later. But this is a part of the job. He found the man pinned beneath the third car. Paramedics pulled him out, but the man died at the hospital. After that, Mr. Guity wrestled with what to do next. A 32-year-old who had once lived in a family shelter with his parents, he viewed the job as paying well and offering a rare chance at upward mobility."

"But striking the man with the train had shaken him more than perhaps any other experience in his life, and the idea of returning to work left him feeling paralyzed. Hundreds of train operators have found themselves in Mr. Guity's position over the years. And for just as long, there has been a path through the state workers' compensation program to receiving substantive treatment to help them cope."

Edwin Guity was operating a southbound D train when a person stepped onto the tracks and went under the wheels despite emergency braking. He exited the cab as required and found the man pinned beneath the third car; paramedics removed him but he later died. The collision deeply shook Mr. Guity and left him unable to consider returning to work. He is a 32-year-old who once lived in a family shelter and relies on the job for financial stability and upward mobility. Train operators have had access to state workers' compensation treatment, but the MTA has not adequately informed them. A friend helped Mr. Guity obtain a six-week program and, with legal assistance, a specialist prescribed a six-month exposure therapy to gradually reintroduce him.

Read at www.nytimes.com