A closer look
When you spectacularly crash a train and kill 93 people, the easiest fix is apparently just changing the map. The 1918 Malbone Street disaster was the deadliest in New York subway history, caused by a scab motorman taking a curve at over six times the speed limit. The ensuing PR nightmare forced a massive, multi-decade overhaul of transit safety, including the system-wide integration of automatic train stops and dead-man switches by the mid-1940s. But rather than just apologizing, Brooklyn quietly renamed Malbone Street to Empire Boulevard, hoping commuters would simply forget the underground bloodbath ever happened.
