A proposed class action suit from two people who were injured while boarding New York City subways was dismissed in the Eastern District of New York Thursday, nearly two years after an initial complaint called for the installation of doors or gates dividing subway platforms from empty tunnels.

In a two-page order, Judge William Kuntz of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted a motion to dismiss filed by Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney's Ira Lipton, who is representing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York City Transit Authority and the Long Island Rail Road.

The three transit agencies were sued by the Lee Litigation Group after two people, including one with visual impairments, said they had a foot slip into the gap between a subway car and the platform, causing leg injuries.

A barrier would help visually impaired people orient themselves in subway stations, the lawyers wrote, in addition to preventing people from going onto the tracks or pushing others in front of trains.

The barriers, which are used in parts of Europe and Asia, also would reduce the accumulation of litter and make subway stations more comfortable for passengers, the lawyers wrote.

In response, Lipton argued that the case never should have been filed in federal court and that the subway system is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Department of Transportation regulates public transportation agencies, he wrote, and train and subway platforms are not federally required to have barriers. The bumpy yellow strips at the edge of platforms comply with federal regulations already, Lipton wrote.

In his order, Kuntz declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction of the plantiffs' state and city law claims.

Lawyers with the Lee Litigation Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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