Irate riders’ deadly risks
DESPERATE straphangers scurried through subway tunnels like rats to get out of a stopped train in Brooklyn, the MTA confirmed Friday.
More than two dozen people risked their lives walking through a dark, grimy tunnel in search of a way out Wednesday afternoon, according to a source familiar with the escape.
The riders were stuck on a packed No. 3 train for less than 10 minutes when they decided to make a break for it, around 4:45 p.m., MTA officials said.
Their train was stopped because its operator saw an injured person on the roadbed near the Franklin Ave. station.
About 20 minutes earlier, Jose Torres, 37, either fell or jumped while walking in between cars of a Southbound No. 5 train, according to MTA and police officials.
Torres was pulled from the tracks alive, but later died at Kings County Hospital.
The MTA had to cut the power — stopping trains on the Nos. 1 and 6 lines — while first responders tended to Torres.
Patience waned quickly for commuters fed up with delays and the MTA’s ability to get trains moving again.
A conductor, who had to walk the tunnel wall, going car to car to let riders know about the delay, saw the mass exodus and reported it to the Rail Control Center.
The 30 people ignored pleas from the conductor to be safe and stay on the train.
“The train crew acted correctly and were in constant communication with customers both over loud speakers and in walking through trains,” MTA spokeswoman Beth DeFalco said. “Customers should never leave a train on their own — it's dangerous and potentially deadly and it requires us to shut down entire lines and delay thousands of other customers because of the safety hazard it presents.”
The subterranean self-evacuation took place the day after two riders risked electrocution to ditch an F train stuck near the W.34th St.-Herald Square station and hoofed it through a tunnel.
Earlier this month, on June 5, passengers were stranded on a stalled, stifling hot F train without air conditioning or lights for nearly an hour.
A video of the suffering straphangers desperately trying to pry open doors to get air into the overheated car went viral online.