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3 Injured After G Train Crashes into Deteriorating Subway Wall: Officials

By  Nicholas Rizzi and Sybile Penhirin | September 11, 2015 7:57am | Updated on September 11, 2015 6:20pm

 A G train hit a bench-wall on Thursday, injuring three people, officials and transit union representatives said.
A G train hit a bench-wall on Thursday, injuring three people, officials and transit union representatives said.
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DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A deteriorated subway wall gave way and caused a G train derailment, injuring three people on Thursday night, according transit officials and union sources.

About 84 passengers had to be evacuated after a service ledge, which had been previously repaired for an unknown problem, bowed into the path of the oncoming train, causing it to go off the tracks about 10:30 p.m., according to the MTA and Transit Workers Union sources.

The G train went off the tracks at at 10:34 p.m., 700 feet north of the station, officials said.

Three people were taken to an area hospital after the train crash, one complaining of dizziness and the others with minor injuries, according to the MTA and FDNY.

The train operator was approaching the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station when he observed the bench-wall (a ledge that serves as a maintenance and emergency walkway) leaning toward the running rail, a transit union source said.

The conductor tried to stop the train but hit with the leaning structure 700 feet north of the station, causing 75 feet of the wall to collapse, the union source said.

The wall was weaken by a water leak as well as the failure of several stabilizer brackets that had been previously installed, according to a source who cited a preliminary investigation by the MTA's Office of System Security. 

A "rail condition" at the station hours before a derailment caused numerous disruptions to service prior to the derailment but a spokesman for the MTA denied it was related to the accident, saying the problem was more than 300 feet away. 

Union sources said that when the train hit the crumbling wall, it continued to travel southbound for about 300 feet, plowing the concrete remnants forward.

Transit Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelson blamed the city council and Mayor Bill de Blasio for dragging their heels on funding infrastructure repairs to the system.

"The system won't fix itself and the for the sake of New York's working families, the City must address this unfunded liability," Samuelson said.

MTA officials promised Friday afternoon to conduct  "a comprehensive investigation to determine the root cause of this derailment and all the factors which contributed to it."

The transit agency said it would release the results after it was completed.

MTA CEO Thomas Prendergast called the accident "unacceptable."

"Make no mistake: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is fully responsible for the safe and reliable operation of the New York region’s mass transit system, and an incident of this magnitude is unacceptable," MTA CEO Thomas Prendergast said Friday evening.