A “low-speed” subway derailment involving two Bronx-bound subway trains occurred on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 4, at Manhattan’s 96th Street station, located west of Central Park. The station serves the Bronx-serving 1 and 2 trains and Manhattan-serving 3 train. There were no serious injuries, FDNY officials said. MTA officials said both affected 1 trains were facing northbound at the time of the collision and that 10 subway cars were derailed during the incident.

 

An MTA spokesperson later said, “Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) leadership today responded to the scene of subway derailment at 96 St 1, 2, 3, Station involving a 1 train carrying approximately 300 customers and another 1 train that had been taken out of service due to vandalism with no customers on board.”

They added, “At approximately 3:00 p.m. the two 1 trains were traveling northbound leaving 96 St Station at slow speeds at which time the trains bumped into each other and both derailed. There were no reported serious injuries. The investigation into this incident is ongoing. New York City Transit (NYCT) crews will be on site through the night to restore service as soon as possible. Customers are advised to check mta.info and the MYmta app for the latest service.”

 

FDNY officials later said the derailment occurred at 3:01 p.m. and that FDNY units arrived in minutes and began a structural assessment and evacuation of passengers from the affected train.

Officials said the FDNY safely evacuated / removed hundreds of passengers while simultaneously operating on the tracks in what they described as “perilous conditions.” They said 26 people with non life-threatening injuries were transported to local hospitals by FDNY EMS members.

 

“In these types of incidents we have multiple agencies operating and everyone comes together and makes it happen,” said FDNY Assistant Chief Michael Meyers. “At the end of the day we all have the same goal in mind, for all of us to go home safe and for the people of New York who ride on the subway to go home safe and hopefully that’s what we got done here today.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Assistant Chief Ian Swords said, “Upon our units arrival they were met with several patients.” He added, “Knowing there was a train involved and the amount of patients this would entail, we began multiple casualty incident triage, where we check every patient that comes off the train for injury and access the severity. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.”

 

Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, said during a press conference held on Thursday that the investigation into the incident was ongoing, explaining that two subways collided, one of which was out-of-service at the time of the collision.

“What we do know is that the out-of-service train had been vandalized,” Davey said, adding that his organization vowed to “get to the bottom” of the incident.

 

“A number of emergency cords had been pulled earlier by someone,” he said, adding that his team were able to re-set all of them except one and that that had been the reason why that train was still stuck in the station.”

Davey said a couple of hundred passengers and four employees were on the train at the time of the derailment. Davey said that as far as he could tell at this point all equipment was in good order at the time of the collision.

 

NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper later said two NYPD officers at the mezzanine level of the 96th Street station had been alerted by a passenger to the collision, which he said took place below the mezzanine level and that half of both trains were inside the tunnel and half outside the tunnel at the time of the collision.

Once the 1 train crosses the Harlem River, it serves 231st Street, 238th Street, and Van Cortlandt Park – 242nd Street.

 

FDNY Assistant Chief Mike Meyers said, in part, as part of his department’s response approach, they first assessed if the impacted trains were structurally sound to walk on and once they established that they were, their preference, “as always,” he said, was to get people off of the track bed which is highly dangerous.

 

In response to a question about security and the tampering with emergency cords, Kemper responded, in part, saying that the NYPD were on the scene before 911 was called, and that the investigation into the emergency cord-pulling was ongoing.

 

FDNY officials later confirmed that 12 units comprising 60 FDNY and EMS personnel responded to the incident which was brought under control at 4.32 p.m., though MTA units were continuing to operate at the scene later on Thursday.

Regular service on the 1, 2 and 3 lines has been disrupted as a result of the incident, MTA officials said, adding that the investigation into the incident is ongoing. “New York City Transit (NYCT) crews will be on site through the night to restore service as soon as possible,” they said. “Customers are advised to check mta.info and the MYmta app for the latest service.”

 

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the 3 train serves The Bronx. This has since been corrected. We also incorrectly attributed a comment to FDNY Assistant Chief Thomas Currao. This has also since been corrected.