You are reading

Seven MTA Employees Suspended For Failing to Inspect Elevated Tracks for Loose Debris

A piece of subway track from the elevated 7 train line smashed through the windshield of car on Roosevelt Avenue in February 2019 (Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer via Twitter)

June 7, 2021 By Allie Griffin

The MTA Inspector General released a report last week detailing a pattern of neglect among its workers tasked with inspecting elevated subway tracks.

The MTA released the results of a year-long investigation, which was launched following a series incidents in 2019 of large debris falling from the elevated subway tracks. Many of those incidents took place on Roosevelt Avenue in Sunnyside and Woodside.

The audit found that seven MTA employees failed to perform mandatory track inspections and falsified inspection reports.

The seven employees were suspended shortly after MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny uncovered their behavior in December.

Her office initiated the investigation in January 2020 after reading numerous news reports of debris falling from elevated subway tracks like the 7 train line. No one was hurt, although several cars were damaged.

However, local leaders expressed concern at the time, saying that the loose debris could have killed someone.

During a March 2019 press conference, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer said the only reason no one had died from the falling debris was pure luck.

The OIG investigators became suspicious of MTA staff when they couldn’t understand why the problem wasn’t identified during regular track inspections. That prompted them to suspect that some MTA workers were skipping the mandatory inspections.

Pokorny said the workers put the public in danger.

“It is appalling that so many track inspectors, on so many occasions, skipped safety inspections, filed false reports to cover their tracks, and then lied to OIG investigators about it,” Pokorny said in a statement. “Management needs to utilize a technology that will ensure supervisors can verify when inspectors do their job – and when they do not.”

Six of the seven workers who were suspended are prohibited from performing track inspections for five years and received a final warning that similar missteps could result in termination, she said.

The investigation also found that supervisors exhibited insufficient oversight over the work of track inspectors.

Van Bramer has repeatedly drawn attention to the safety issue of unsecured elevated tracks. He said the report confirms what his office had suspected.

“The new report from the MTA’s Inspector General shows what we’ve all known for too long – the falling debris under the 7 line was dangerous and the MTA did not do nearly enough to make us safe,” he said on Twitter.

The MTA, prompted by criticism, spent nearly $16 million in 2019 to attach netting underneath the elevated tracks to catch the debris before it hit people.

email the author: [email protected]

2 Comments

Click for Comments 
Merman

These people should be charged criminally and banned from any city jobs in the future. They falsified reports pretending to have done critical work which they never did and many innocent lives were put at risk and property was damaged. How is that not criminal?

Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

MTA seizes 19 ‘ghost’ cars registered to toll violators at Queens Midtown Tunnel on Monday

Two days before the MTA Board approved the controversial congestion pricing plan for Manhattan on Wednesday, the agency cracked down on persistent toll violators at the Queens Midtown Tunnel in Long Island City.

MTA Bridges and Tunnels seized 19 vehicles registered to persistent scofflaws on Monday and issued 81 summonses and confiscated two fraudulent incense plates. The MTA noted that the scofflaws accounted for approximately $483,000 in combined unpaid tolls and fees. One of the top persistent toll violators from the targeted enforcement owed nearly $76,000 in tolls and fees.