Woodside, Queens Residents Turn Up Heat On MTA After Second Case Of Falling Debris On 7 Line
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- After another close call, pressure is being put on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to find out why dangerous debris keeps falling from elevated train tracks in Queens.
A day after a piece of metal came down and pierced a van's window, a witness who helped the driver and passenger spoke about what happened, CBS2's Marc Liverman reported Thursday.
The victims are thankful they weren't killed. Liverman pointed out just how rundown the platform is, emphasizing the rust and peeling paint.
"They ran into my store over here and they're like, 'Something fell on my car. We gotta call the cops,'" witness Hamza Saeed said.
Saeed described the terrifying moments after the piece of metal came loose and smashed through the van's windshield.
"The windshield on the right side was completely cracked, broken," he said. "They were quite shook. They were like, 'How does something like that fall?'"
The incident happened underneath the Woodside 7 train platform on Roosevelt and 61st Street. Saeed said he heard the sound and watched the victims pull up to his store a few dozen feet away.
"She was like, 'Something fell and now were scared,' and, 'Thank God nothing happened to us.'" he said.
Some Woodside residents and subway riders said the area is so decrepit, they'll avoid walking underneath.
"It's scary. It's dangerous. Anything can happen," Sayed Elmarakpi said.
Wednesday's incident came just a few weeks after a big wooden beam came loose along the same subway line and crushed a windshield, narrowly missing someone inside.
So residents in the neighborhood have a message for the MTA.
"Just to be fixed. See what the problem is and to be fixed," Elmarakpi said.
The MTA said it is investigating both incidents. It blamed Wednesday's metal collapse on a truck that might have hit a beam, but not everyone says that would have gone unnoticed.
"The truck would have been there for hours," resident Stella Galvis said.
A group of business owners and residents have even filed a lawsuit against the MTA, forcing it to paint and fix this peeling, crumbling mess before it's too late.
Several city council members were expected to hold a news conference on Thursday afternoon on the steps of City Hall in an attempt to push the MTA to fix what some are calling an emergency situation on the 7 line.