Another Chunk Of Falling Debris Nearly Strikes Woman, MTA To Finally Start Adding Nets In Subway Platforms
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The MTA's growing problem with falling debris appears to have struck again.
This time, metal came crashing to the ground in Queens, falling from the 7 line subway tracks.
No one was hurt, but one woman was quick to call out the beleaguered agency over the continuing danger.
"It wasn't going to kill me, but it was going to hurt me," Erin Koster of Woodside said.
Koster is the latest person to dodge debris plummeting from an elevated subway track. She tweeted pictures of the metal fragment to the MTA after it fell to the ground along Roosevelt Avenue near 53rd Street as she was crossing the street.
"It was a piece of metal, rusty metal that was going to cut somebody or hurt somebody, it's going to happen."
"We are playing Russian roulette with the people of Woodside, Queens," New York City councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said.
Van Bramer has been outspoken about the problem, asking the MTA to do more after each and every incident.
"You could erect netting here to protect people until you're absolutely certain nothing more is going to fall," the councilman said.
Councilmember Van Bramer added this is at least the fifth reported incident of debris falling from the tracks along the 7 line.
Back in February, a wooden plank plunged from the tracks and pierced a car's windshield, narrowly missing the driver.
In March, a chunk of metal crashed down on to a car in Long Island City.
It's not just the 7 line either, as a bolt apparently fell from the A train tracks in Queens and damaged a car just days later in March.
Another woman says it was falling metal that shattered her back windshield in the Bronx just over a week ago in May.
"This could have been my son in the back seat," Angelic Guerrero told CBS2.
"What do we have to do here, what are we waiting for?" Van Bramer said.
Transit workers could be seen inspecting the 7 tracks Monday afternoon where the most recent piece came loose.
The MTA issued a statement saying the tracks have undergone several inspections and "the debris that was found today appears to have broken clean recently."
"I'm not interested in them waiting until somebody is hospitalized or worse before they fix this. Something has to be done," Koster declared.
The agency says it's now in the process of installing netting as part of a pilot program in limited locations around the city.
