SUBWAY? NO WAY!
Vic too scared to ride
She’ll never ride the subway again.
The Manhattan stroller mom who was slashed in the face by a homeless woman on a 5 train told The Post on Monday that the subways are more dangerous now than ever.
“I was born in New York City. I have been taking the train and buses my whole life,” said Anna Martinez, 31, who suffered nerve damage and needed 30 stitches to close the 8-inch gash from her left forehead to her cheek just below her eye.
“I won’t be taking the train — not at all,” Martinez said. “I’m afraid.”
Martinez claimed that serial offender Jacqueline Sanjurjo, 53, followed her into Harlem’s 125th Street station at around 11 a.m. Sunday — slipping through an emergency exit when station agents opened it so the mom could get her 18-month-old son’s stroller onto the platform. Martinez was wearing a long shirt — but no pants — at the time.
The two boarded a southbound 5 train, with Martinez sitting across from Sanjurjo, according to the mom. There was no interaction at all, Martinez said.
When the train reached Grand Central station, a conductor ordered everyone off, according to Martinez. She and Sanjurjo were standing near the doors, and when they opened, the homeless woman attacked her without provocation, Martinez said.
It took cops nearly 10 minutes to show up, allowing Sanjurjo to escape and throw away her weapon, according to Martinez.
“She wouldn’t have been able to get away and get rid of the weapon if they had come quicker,” the mom said.
Police have said that they were at the scene immediately and that Martinez told them Sanjurjo attacked her after she moved away from the woman on the train.
The suspect was caught within the hour acting erratically outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal. She admitted to slashing Martinez and tossing her weapon, police sources said.
Straphangers on Monday agreed with Martinez that the homeless problem in the subway is out of control — and it’s not just the riders who are terrified.
An MTA worker at the World Trade Center station told The Post she regularly sees up to 10 vagrants a day on the E train but doesn’t confront them out of fear.
“I just mind my business, don’t say anything to them so they don’t snap,” said the worker, who declined to give her name.
“Yes, I’m scared, but . . . what am I going to do? I just want to do my job and make it home to my child,” she added.
The MTA contends that the subway’s homeless population shrunk between 2015 and 2016.
“The city and MTA jointly fund a subway outreach program for homeless, and the city directly manages the program,” said agency spokeswoman Beth DeFalco, noting that the MTA kicks in $3 million for the work.
Meanwhile, subway violence has been rising since 2014. In the first four months of this year, there were 112 felony assaults reported in the system versus 95 for the same period last year — a 17 percent increase, according to figures from the MTA.
Sanjurjo has been arrested more than 60 times for drugs and prostitution, cops said.
“For her to be arrested [60] times and still be walking around free — the city has stuff screwed up,” Martinez fumed.
People who have lived with Sanjurjo at the Franklin Avenue Women’s Shelter in The Bronx say she was ready to blow.
“Yeah she’s a problem,” said resident Cee Braithwaite, 43. “She’s got a temper. She thinks the world is out to get her.”