BART officials are investigating how a man got into an elevator shaft at the Montgomery Street station on Sunday night and was crushed to death in that shaft.
This incident brings about the question of safety against possible terrorism in our public transportation systems.
BART officials say the transit system is safe, but authorities are wondering how the man got into the shaft.
"We do know there's two points of entry in that area our ventilation shafts. They do lead to the elevator," BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said. "We check those and they are secure. The only other way is to get up there is through elevator hatch door just right on top of the elevator."
How the man got up there is under investigation.
San Francisco police and fire responded to a report of a person stuck in an elevator at the Montgomery station at about 9:35 p.m. Sunday. Authorities later discovered the man was crushed between a wall and the elevator.
BART officials say since the 9/11 terror attack on America, security has been a top priority.
They say stations are swept by police before the station is closed and before it opens every day.
Michael Nacht is a professor at the Goldman School of public policy and expert on terrorism at the University of California at Berkeley. He says protecting public transit is tough when most of our resources go to protect planes from possible terrorism.
"It's more a matter of looking at places where we think they're likely to be attacked and putting more resources there," Nacht said. "There's constant intelligence shared within 16 agencies and we share with other governments."
Nacht says if something comes up through intelligence, resources are shifted to protect the potential target.
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