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In letter to Globe, the mother of man who died on T stairs demands change

David K. Jones, a Boston University professor, fell through a staircase across from the JFK/UMass MBTA station in September 2021.

Boston University professor David Jones. He died in an accident while on a run in Boston. Now his mom is writing to The Boston Globe to advocate for change. BU School of Public Health

By Gwen Egan

January 7, 2023

The mother of David K. Jones, the Boston University professor who died after falling through a set of stairs at a MBTA stop in 2021, released a letter advocating for immediate change.

Debra Bingham, of Milton, wrote a letter to The Boston Globe asking for freshly sworn in Gov. Maura Healey to fix the MBTA because lives depend on it.

Bingham said that Jones’s death was avoidable. If the staircase had been labeled as unsafe, if the rusted staircase had been properly taken care of, or if there was speedy action to remedy the safety problem when it was flagged months before, according to Bingham, her son wouldn’t have died.

“Nothing can bring my son back to life. We as a family grieve for him daily. His goodness and brilliance are forever lost to his three young children, his wife, his family, friends, Boston, and indeed the world,” she wrote.

Bingham called on leadership to make a change, but was “horrified” that 12 of the 20 improvement plans for the MBTA submitted to the Federal Transit Agency were denied.

“I believe it is not a matter of if more people who interact with the T system will be injured or killed but rather when,” she wrote.

At the end of her letter, she pleaded with Healey to “Fix the MBTA. Lives depend on it.”

Her letter can be read here.