A fare-evasion attempt at a San Francisco BART station took an unexpected turn when a woman became trapped beneath one of the transit agency’s newly installed fare gates, creating a strange scene that was captured on video and quickly spread online.
The video, posted by the Instagram account @bartactivities, shows the woman lying face down on the station floor, apparently wedged under the gate and unable to get herself free.
“This is terrible,” the person recording the incident says in the clip. The speaker appears to be a BART employee.
As the woman remains pinned beneath the barrier, the employee adds, “We can’t even open it without harming you now.”
Another BART agent can be heard telling her, “You could have just asked us,” implying that staff might have helped her through if she was unable to pay, rather than having her try to slip past the gate.
MORE STORY: How I Lifted My Sagging Jawline and Restored Sunken Cheeks at 49 Without Surgery
According to SFist, the incident appears to have happened at either Powell Street Station or Montgomery Street Station.
BART Director Liz Ames addressed the episode in a statement to NBC, saying, “I hope she wasn’t hurt and I hope she received a nice ticket to pay for fare evasion.”
Ames said BART’s new fare gates have helped increase revenue while dramatically reducing fare evasion and crime.
She added that revenue is up by about $10 million, meaning the agency’s $90 million investment in the gates could pay for itself in less than a decade if that trend continues.
Former BART director Debora Allen also praised the project: “I think it’s great. I think it’s the best thing we’ve done at BART in many, probably decades,” she said.
The full-height gates are part of BART’s four-year, $90 million effort to make fare evasion significantly more difficult after years of riders jumping or slipping through older barriers.
While some fare evaders are still testing their luck, the viral video is a reminder for anyone tempted to slip past the toll.
