Subway cars derail, disrupt train service in NYC
NEW YORK -- Two subway cars derailed in Manhattan Tuesday morning, forcing hundreds of passengers to evacuate the trains and leaving some with minor injuries, CBS New York reports.
A southbound A train struck the wall of the tunnel just before 10 a.m., causing two subway cars to derail at West 128th Street, the Office of Emergency Management said.
"The emergency brakes automatically went on. The train bucked forward, it bucked backward. In the process of doing that, two of the -- there's eight cars on this train -- two of the cars derailed. They scraped the side of the wall," MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said.
Two of the A train's cars made it into the 125th Street station, though "some people unfortunately decided to go out through the back way, which we never encourage," Lhota said. "They decided to do that and took it into their own hands instead of the safe way."
Firefighters say 34 people were treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Service along the A, B, C and D trains were suspended in both directions between 59th and 125th Streets for much of the day, but by evening the MTA said limited service had resumed.
Passengers told CBS New York they felt the train jump around 125th Street.
"We were on the express track from 145th to 125th," a passenger said. "All of a sudden, it was like the train just started like banging against the walls of the tunnel. It was going up and down, sort of like a runaway roller coaster -- like a bucking horse."
"The lucky thing is that we were only a couple of hundred feet from the platform," he continued. "It was like riding on the back of a bull."
Passengers on board the subway took to social media to describe the experience, which included smoke, loud bangs and being stuck underground.
Firefighters confirmed there was smoke but no fire.
About 800 people were on four trains that were stopped as a result of the derailment, and some 500 evacuated on the tracks.
The cause of the derailment remains under investigation.
