It's very tragic but unlike his grieving widow I can easily understand how it happened: I've ridden enough NYC subways to have seen many people in many many poses of sleep, inebriation, and/or stupor. You don't go around touching or waking everyone you see on a subway in such repose. AS the transit person says in the article, it's actually against their policy to disturb anyone who's sitting up, and that doesn't surprise me in the least: if a transit worker woke everyone they say dozing they would have their head taken off at least a few times per day.
It's terribly sad, but unless they adopt a policy of "no sleeping, no eyes closed, on the subways" they have no basis for nudging awake everyone they see with drooping head......
I don't even see it as terribly sad. It is sad he died as it is when anyone dies. But dying is not a terribly pretty thing in many circumstances.
I don't see it as any sadder than someone having a heart attack behind the wheel and wrecking his career after dying or dying in your car in a mall parking lot and sitting there a number of hours or any number of other ways to die.
I did not read the article, but I think rather than looking for extra sympathy or a law suit the wife should mourn and bury her husband.