It’s raining rusty metal in Queens.
A woman walking beneath the No. 7 subway tracks Monday was nearly struck by a falling hunk of rusty metal, the fifth reported incident of flying debris along the 104-year-old elevated structure this year.
Erin Koster, 37, was crossing Roosevelt Ave. at 53rd St. at around 4:30 p.m. when she said the piece of metal fell in front of her. Kostner said the debris weighed about a pound, enough to cause serious injury.
The Woodside resident said she’s been aware of the ongoing issue on the line.
“We don’t drive under the train anymore at all in the car, because why would you,” said Koster. “But if you live in this neighborhood, you have to walk under the train tracks.”
The issues along the No. 7 line became well known in February when a falling beam nearly impaled an Uber driver on Roosevelt Ave. near 65th St. Two weeks later, a hunk of rusty metal cracked the windshield of a car parked beneath the tracks near 62nd St.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have repeatedly assured residents that it’s perfectly safe beneath the tracks, and on Tuesday said they were looking into putting up netting to catch any falling debris.
Agency spokesman Shams Tarek said Tuesday’s falling debris appears to have “broken clean” without any sign of slow deterioration or stress to the structure.
Broken clean. Looks like the MTA is becoming more adept at propaganda than at maintenance.
Lookie here, an update from THE CITY:
The
MTA said Tuesday it will install protective netting beneath “limited”
sections of elevated train tracks throughout the city — including along
the No. 7 line, where debris has repeatedly plunged onto Queens’
Roosevelt Avenue.
The agency’s move follows the latest spills — both near the 52nd Street stop in Woodside on Monday and Tuesday.
“It’s
otherworldly that we have so many people in Woodside, Queens, when they
walk along Roosevelt Avenue are looking up and saying, ‘Am I next? Is
something going to happen to me here?’” said Councilmember Jimmy Van
Bramer. “They’ve got to fix this.”
Van
Bramer has been pressing the MTA to install netting beneath the 7
tracks in the wake of several heavy items plummeting from the elevated
structures.
The problems underneath the line started in February, when a piece of wood spiked
the windshield of a passing for-hire vehicle. That scare prompted the
MTA to pledge an inspection of “every inch of elevated tracks in the
city.”
But until this week, the MTA had been noncommittal about installing netting.
THE CITY last month reported
that New York City Transit President Andy Byford objected to Van
Bramer’s proposal, warning in a letter to the Council member that
netting would “impede access, close-up inspection and assessment of
corrosion or defects on the structure and cause extensive street-level
traffic disruption to install and secure.”
On
Tuesday, a spokesperson for Byford said the No. 7’s elevated structure
“has the attention of the highest levels of MTA leadership,” and that
the authority is taking the netting on a test run.
