By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN—The Metropolitan Transportation Authority let the brick ceiling of the 181st Street subway station disintegrate for a decade before it finally collapsed last summer, an agency audit said.
“The danger signs were evident but were unattended to,” MTA’s chief independent inspector Barry Kluger told the New York Post.
Kluger cited the August 16, 2009 collapse at the 181st St. station — one of the oldest in the city — as one of three in his audit that showed “systematic weaknesses.”
The other collapses that were chalked up to negligence include a section of metal ceiling that fell at the Bowling Green 4/5 station in 2007, and an 8-foot concrete platform that fell from an elevated F train stop at 18th Avenue in Brooklyn in 2009, according to the New York Times.
There were several reasons that these incidents happened, Kruger said.
Some ceilings and platforms got no inspection at all, the report said. Others were inspected, but from the ground level — leaving no room for close-up scrutiny.
Finally, several divisions in NYC Transit "failed to communicate" about needed maintenance, the Times reported.
Although no one was injured in any of the incidents, the dilapidated state of the subway system puts people at risk, Kruger says.
“Absolutely, people’s safety was in danger. This isn’t an isolated incident,” Kruger told the Post. He also said MTA managers “were not working together. It’s a no-brainer.”
To fix the problem, Kruger recommended the MTA create a list of all ceilings with panels and assign responsibility for them, the Times reported.
NYC Transit spokesman Charles Seaton told the Post that they “support the recommendations. Some have already been undertaken, and guidelines are currently being developed for the implementation of others.”
