Kudos to MTA for ongoing safety measures

Traveling the shining steel rails each workday on Metro-North’s Hudson Line and the subways in New York City, the thought of a maniac bombing or shooting up a train or station, or running amok with a knife is always in the back of my mind now. But as the climate of fear in this country grows beyond levels I haven’t seen since my childhood in the late 1960s, I take some cold consolation in the understanding that the threat of random violence has always existed and, unfortunately, probably always will as long as there is more than one human being walking about this planet.

I’m also grateful that Metro-North is introducing cameras on its trains to enhance security and help monitor employee performance. Full marks to the MTA for its ongoing efforts to address an array of safety concerns in the wake of a slew of horrible accidents, like the fatal derailment at Spuyten-Duyvil in 2013 when an engineer fell asleep at the controls.

READ MORE:Metro-North starts safety camera testing in cabs, passenger areas

Unfortunately, it took state and federal initiatives to spur these measures and help ensure that such things don’t happen again. But that’s the way of the world. Most laws and regulations on the books are a response to someone or something that has been egregiously wrong and provoked enough of an outcry.

I have yet to notice one of the new cameras on my daily trains, though they won’t actually make me feel safer. They will mainly record the misfortune and misdeeds that can befall us. My initial fear, fatuous as it surely is, was that I would be recorded doing something wholly undignified: Lolling, loudly snoring and drooling on a fellow passenger while I take my customary nap en route to my place of employment or home.

Otherwise, fully cognizant that there are multitudes of ways you can be removed from this existential loop, I am determined to live my life happily and freely, and savor my every breath. You should, too. (Your breath, not mine, as I like onions, scallions and garlic.)

On that note, we’ll update our last installment, which recounted the travail of a Metro-North rider who had a tree fall on her car while it was parked in a lot at Beacon Station:

READ MORE:When a tree falls in parking lot, who’s responsible?

Susan Weiss recently sent an email to say that the potentially perilous trees on the edge of the lot have been cleared.

“So in that sense, I feel that they did the right thing to prevent future hazards,” she wrote. “However, I still feel they are responsible and that the claim of ‘no previous notice that there was a hazardous situation’ doesn’t hold much water when it was so clear and obvious.”

Reader Evan Meltzer wrote to ask if Weiss’ insurance had covered the damage to her car, which was essentially totaled. (It did.)

“Does seem that if you are paying for parking, it should be secure no matter what,” he wrote in his email. “They are responsible if they are accepting the fee. You don’t expect a tree limb to come down. It should have been pruned.”

But it did come down, just one more thing that can happen to a person in this life. Meanwhile, Weiss is seeking $2,500 in small claims court to cover the down payment on her car lease. Her hearing is on Aug. 18.

Write John Rolfe in care of the Poughkeepsie Journal, P.O. Box 1231, Poughkeepsie, 12601 or emailalsumpin@aol.com