CBS NY
In what’s become an alarmingly commonplace occurrence of late, a small piece of rusty metal plunged from the elevated 7 train track and crashed into a car in Queens on Friday.
Officials say the hunk of metal dropped onto the trunk of a car on Queens Boulevard and Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside, causing a dent.
The man whose car it hit was surprised to see how much damage the metal inflicted. The incident comes after two separate incidents in the past month where debris fell from the 7 train tracks in Woodside.
No one was hurt, but cars were damaged every time debris fell.
“This is outrageous! More rusty metal debris falling from the 7 train, this time in LIC. Look at that dent— a person would have died!” Tweeted Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer. “I sent a letter to [the MTA] last week demanding an expeditious inspection of the 7 train structure. What is the hold up?!”
NBC 4 NY
MTA workers were seen inspecting a
section of tracks Monday afternoon as they looked into whether metal
that apparently crashed into a car's roof in Queens was debris from
elevated subway tracks.
The
alleged incident occurred Monday when a woman behind the wheel heard a
thump, pulled over, got out, looked up and apparently found damage on
the roof of her car.
The woman believes it was a piece of metal that fell from the elevated tracks along Liberty Avenue and 115th in Richmond Hill.
She says the debris rained down as a train passed above.
However, the MTA says it looked into Monday’s incident but did not find “anything abnormal at the scene.”
In
a statement, the MTA said: “We obviously take any report like this
seriously and sent a team to investigate. We didn’t find anything
abnormal at the scene – there was no debris on the ground, the track was
inspected from both sides and all components were found to be secure.
Our systemwide inspection of all elevated track structures continues.”
Falling debris from elevated tracks
has damaged at least three cars in the last month, including a car
impaled by a wooden beam. MTA president Andy Byford said the agency is
looking to other cities, including Chicago, for help on maintenance tips
for elevated tracks.
"We are
reaching out to sister agencies — a classic, obvious example being
Chicago because they operate a lot of overhead structures — to see if
there is anything that they do additional to what we do," Byford said.
Wait, our transit system needs to be advised from other city's transit authorities to basically clean up after themselves? Too bad Felix Unger is a fictional character and deceased, because he would have been an excellent consultant for the MTA.
