RAIL BLUNDER CAUSED DISASTER
Left loose piece of steel Cause of A train crash pinpointed – 2 suspended
A DANGEROUSLY loose 13-foot piece of track, left between rails in a Harlem tunnel, was blamed along with two subway supervisors for the terrifying A train derailment.
The nearly 500-pound steel rail, against safety protocols, was left behind and never secured in the subterranean stretch near 125th St. after a work crew replaced a defective section of rail, officials said Wednesday.
Two subway track maintenance supervisors were suspended without pay as investigators blamed human error for Tuesday morning’s nightmarish crash and commute.
The probe was still continuing into the wreck that injured 34 riders and left hundreds scurrying to safety through dark tunnels.
“The key to this being an effective and safe practice is making sure that the extra equipment is properly bolted down, which does not appear to have happened in this case,” said Metropolitan Transportation Authority head Joe Lhota and interim Executive Director Ronnie Hakim.
The piece of leftover track, perhaps rattled by the vibrations of passing subways, somehow knocked the eight-car train off the Brooklyn-bound tracks around 9:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Two of the passengers on the train announced plans Wednesday to file lawsuits against the city — including Sheena Tucker, 31, of Harlem. She intends to file a $5 million lawsuit after her scary morning ride.
The truncated rail was actually lying between the tracks beneath the passing trains headed downtown toward Brooklyn. Two of the cars derailed as the train scraped against the tunnel wall, tossing straphangers around like bowling pins.
“Short segments of rail constitute the biggest danger,” said Transport Workers Union head John Samuelsen. “They’re more difficult to secure (and) more sensitive to the vibrations caused by trains, particularly on high traffic corridors.”
MTA crews were replacing a defective 13-foot stretch of rail on Monday night and they cut a 26-foot rail in half for a replacement, a source familiar with the investigation told the Daily News.
The remaining segment was left underground despite protocol requiring the removal of any piece under 19.5 feet from the tunnel, the source continued.
Transit crews continued a sweep of the 655 miles of subway track Wednesday to ensure there were no additional replacement parts or loose rails left in the system.
The two suspended managers were yanked off the job at 1:30 a.m. on direct orders from their boss, sources said.
Jason George, 38, and Sean Meriam, 44, of Queens, will remain idled until a review of the situation is finished. Both appeared Wednesday at MTA headquarters in lower Manhattan, sources said.
The president of the Subway Surface Supervisors Association blasted MTA officials for scapegoating the pair.
“They’re fast to point the finger at employees,” said union boss Mike Carrube. “To blame them right away, when the investigation is not even complete . . . and point the finger at two employees is ridiculous.”
Carrube said the storing of rail in the center of the track bed was a practice “for God knows how long. These spare rails have to be out there.”
MTA spokeswoman Beth DeFalco agreed that underground storage of rails and other equipment was common in the railroad business.
“We strategically store material for expedient repairs . . . so that a team can be deployed for repair immediately without delay of having to carry a 1,200-pound rail over,” she said.
The specific problem in the Harlem derailment was a failure to follow procedure, she said.
“There are proper protocols to ensure equipment is fastened and cannot shake loose and that equipment that is too small to be safely stored is never stored in between tracks,” said DeFalco.
Samuelsen said he wouldn’t challenge the MTA’s conclusion: “I don’t disagree. We agree.”
By the Wednesday morning rush hour, service was restored on the four subway
lines running through the Harlem station: The A,B, C and D lines. MTA officials warned the city’s beleaguered riders to expect residual delays.
Straphanger Pedro Maldonado was outside the 125th St. station when the train derailed Tuesday morning. He was apprehensive about boarding on a downtown train for the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
“Outside, I saw a lot of people scared, and two women crying,” he recounted 24 hours later. “I thought it was a terrorist attack. I’m more afraid to ride now, but this is how I have to go.”
Gene Shore, waiting for a C train Wednesday morning, said the derailment left him more frustrated than fearful.
“It doesn’t scare me,” said Shore, 44. “I’m just annoyed, you know? More and more delays, and we can’t do anything about it.”
Another subway rider tried to keep a positive outlook despite the derailment.
“Things do happen,” said the 65-yearold woman. “You can’t avoid that. You have to go.”
The derailment, in addition to peeling open a train car door, damaged track equipment. Photos showed a phalanx of MTA workers flooding the crash site as part of the investigation and the repair effort. Hundreds of people filled the subway tracks and tunnels as they bolted from cars filled with smoke from a trash fire on the tracks. The blaze was ignited by the sparks thrown off by the careening train.
None of the injuries was considered life-threatening — and one of the victims was a baby boy wearing only a diaper.
The derailment offered the latest indictment of an aging and overburdened mass transit system serving 5.6 million daily riders.
Neither Mayor de Blasio nor Gov. Cuomo showed up at the accident site.
Straphangers took Cuomo to task outside his Manhattan office Wednesday night.
“We’re in trouble underground, Cuomo’s nowhere to be found!” hollered members of the Riders Alliance and the Straphangers Campaign.
Both state and city officials have already announced plans to address the growing issues with the troubled 113-year-old mass transit system.
Jim Gannon, a spokesman for the TWU Local 100, said keeping the whole thing running smoothly is no small feat.
“The pressures and problems of maintaining an older system while still operating 24/7 can lead to something like this,” Gannon said.
“Every night, hundreds of them (workers) are out doing needed maintenance. They’re under a lot of pressure.”