The NYC subway's ghoulish secret: When someone dies on the tracks, where do they keep the corpse?

The NYC subway's ghoulish secret: When someone dies on the tracks, where do they keep the corpse?

Schwartz, Michael

It's a gruesome fact, but sometimes police have to tuck a corpse into a nonpublic area of a station until the medical examiner shows up to take it away.

In the subway, the show must go on â€" even if it means stashing a body in the closet.

Roughly 140 people are hit by trains every year, yet millions of customers demand interruption-free service, so the police sometimes have to tuck a corpse into a nonpublic area of a station until the medical examiner shows up to take it away.

“If hauling a body to a side room seems ghoulish, remember that 5.5 million people ride the subway every day,” a transit official said. “Every minute a train is stopped, a backlog builds â€" and it’s not just measured by minutes, but by tens of thousands of people stuck.”

The NYPD’s patrol guide gives guidance to the unfortunate transit officer facing such circumstances.

“A body, offensive to public decency, may be removed from a public place. Unnecessary interruption of train service can inconvenience thousands of passengers and endanger public welfare. In addition, unnecessary interruption can increase temperatures significantly in trains and stations, and may cause panic on crowded trains stopped in tunnels. Service will be interrupted only when absolutely necessary.”

About a third of the 140 people hit by trains yearly are killed. Some are murders â€" like the two high-profile cases in December â€" but nearly all of the man-meets-train encounters are deliberate suicides or accidents involving the extremely intoxicated.

But in all cases, the bodies need to be moved.

Such was the case on Nov. 25, a Sunday, at the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall station.

A motorman notified the Rail Control Center at 4:17 p.m. that his southbound express hit someone as the train was entering the station. About 500 passengers were booted from the train; the platform was cleared and then roped off with yellow police tape. Officers interviewed witnesses and determined that no crime had been committed.

About an hour later, firefighters or a police Emergency Service Unit officer removed the deceased from the tracks, according to the police and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Minutes later, cops carried the body to a room on the mezzanine level, the agencies said. An officer was posted outside.

Service was restored even before the body had been removed from the station.

The show must go on.