NEW YORK (N.Y. Times) — The Q train from Brooklyn to Manhattan was crowded Tuesday morning, but Xing Ling Mei managed to get a seat at the end of a car with her son Austin, 3. The boy sat on his mother's lap at first, then stood up. Mei ordered him to sit back down as the train left the DeKalb Avenue station.

As the train rounded a curve, the metal door leading from one car to the next slid open. Austin lost his footing, tumbled backward through the open door and fell onto the tracks as his mother lunged toward him.

The boy suffered extensive head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, the police said.

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