Price of Blaz’s ‘pain’ on train
MAYOR DE BLASIO is no stranger to being slammed by the MTA, but this time he swears it didn’t happen.
Still, a conductor was yanked from duty last week and given a drug and alcohol test after a fellow transit worker accused him of hitting Hizzoner with a train door, the Daily News has learned.
De Blasio was at the bustling Atlantic Ave.-Barclays Center station on Thursday to announce a new community policing initiative in the subway system.
A Metropolitan Transportation Authority platform worker accused the train’s conductor of hitting de Blasio with the closing train doors while the mayor was boarding a northbound No. 5 train about 3:52 p.m. to get to Gracie Mansion.
“I was standing alongside the mayor and the doors never closed on him or anyone I saw,” de Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips said.
Still, the accusation got the attention of the dispatcher on duty and it went up NYC Transit’s chain of command.
The conductor was then pulled from service for a drug and alcohol test and put on restricted duty, according to a source familiar with the incident.
The source called the testing “normal protocol,” but added that “everybody kind of wanted to cover themselves” because de Blasio’s name was raised.
A spokesman for Transport Workers Union Local 100 did not return a request for comment.
Controlling the doors is a key responsibility of subway conductors.
Hundreds of conductors each year get “efficiency” tests to see how well they can operate doors and observe the station platform.
Last year, 44 out of 768 conductors tested failed, while in 2016 the MTA tested 848 conductors, resulting in 39 conductors failing.
MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein said the mayor did not reach out to the agency and there is no indication that de Blasio was struck by a door.
“Two platform controllers reported a door incident with a customer,” Weinstein said. “Different employees are reporting different versions of events, and this is under investigation. Per standard protocol, the conductor was removed from his run and drug/alcohol-tested.”