MTA boss blames mom whose 5-year-old daughter got head caught in new ‘modern’ subway gates – as agency adds caution stickers

This advice isn’t even worth a whole $3.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber blamed a mom whose 5-year-old daughter got her head stuck in the agency’s widely-panned “modern” fare gates.

“You got to have the child in front of you or close by you,” Lieber said during a PIX 11 interview this week.

The MTA honcho addressed the bumpy rollout of the shiny new gates at Manhattan’s Broadway-Lafayette station — as yellow caution stickers were plastered on the plexiglass doors, including instruction on how to use them when commuting with kids.

“The one thing I’m concerned about is making sure the parents know how to proceed safely through with a child,” Lieber told PIX.

“The system is designed to recognize a child, small person,” he insisted.

“What it’s not designed to do is if the child wanders behind, five feet behind you, then the doors close and that’s not great.”

The gates were installed last month as part of a $1.1 billion pilot program that aims to crackdown on the transit agency’s $400 million subway fare evasion problem.

But fare beaters are easily defeating the technology, while other riders have become trapped and injured by the quick-moving glass shield doors. 

The child who got stuck in the gates Dec. 19 suffered head swelling and was taken to the hospital, prompting Lieber’s tone-deaf message to moms and dads braving the subway system with their little ones.

But Lieber claimed that most of the viral videos showing other straphangers getting caught in the new gates show scofflaws who don’t want to pay the now-$3 fee.

He said the clips showed fare-evaders trying to bum-rush through the entrance behind a paying patron “and the gates are designed to close to prevent that from happening.”

“The first thing we should emphasize is that’s most of the problem,” he claimed.

“I’ve reinforced, as our leadership has of New York City Transit, we gotta make sure, especially people with kids, are being properly instructed,” he said.

In a bid to cut down on mishaps, the MTA placed warning signs on the doors that read, “Please proceed swiftly through the gates. Paddles close quickly,” along with a message about ticket costs and height limits for child passengers.

“Up to 3 children under 44″ rider free with a fare-paying adult. Children must enter gate BEFORE adult,” the sticker said.

An MTA spokesperson said Tuesday “customer facing signage” was always part of the agency’s pilot that uses technology “from around the world.”

At least one straphanger called the guidance a “slap in the face.”

“I don’t think that’s particularly helpful, and people probably already figured out that they need to keep moving,” Tina Green, 48, told The Post from the Lower Manhattan station Tuesday.

“It feels like a slap in the face. It goes to the incompetence of the MTA,” she said, adding she won’t be bringing her child through the new gates because “I just don’t think they’re well done.”

The MTA has repeatedly said the “modern” fare gates at a handful of stations are part of a pilot program to test the latest defense against fare evasion that cost the subway system around $400 million in 2025.

There are three styles of doors from three different vendors that are being tested out before the MTA goes forward with a $1.1 billion plan for the new gates that would be installed at 150 stations over the next several years.

Lieber said the pilot program is to figure out how to make the gates “optimally work” for city commuters.

And he didn’t just attempt to school subway parents during the interview – but also doled out some thoughts on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push for free buses, bringing up the socialist’s privileged upbringing.

“My instinct is to focus first on making sure that people who are the neediest get more help,” Lieber said.

“I’m less concerned about people who have means who live in the neighborhood I grew up in and that Zohran Mamdani grew up in on the Upper West Side who are maybe a little bit better off.”

Lieber added he’s zoned in on affordability across the vast transit system and was looking forward to working with Mamdani.

“We’re gonna talk about it,” he said. “And again, spirit of the discussion is he’s a pro-transit mayor, I want to work with him.”