What to Know
- A man in Queens says that a large bolt fell from an overhead subway track and smashed through his sunroof as he drove below
- The driver was heading to work in Long Island City when he says he heard something that sounded like "someone threw a bottle at the car.”
- Only it wasn’t any glass bottle, it was a six-inch rusty metal bolt that came falling from the subway tracks above on the N/W subway lines
A man in Queens says that a large bolt fell from an overhead subway track and smashed through his sunroof as he drove below.
The driver, Philip Garcia, was driving to work Tuesday morning in Long Island City when he says he heard something that sounded like “someone threw a bottle at the car.”
Only it wasn’t any glass bottle — it was a six-inch rusty metal bolt that came falling from the subway tracks above on the N and W subway lines near Queensboro Plaza.
The bolt, which weighs about three or four pounds according to Garcia, left a gaping hole in his sunroof. But he says he counts himself lucky because he had just dropped his daughter off at school, who would’ve been sitting in the back seat.
“Fortunately she wasn’t in the car at the time, but this went through the back of the moon roof, because that’s stationary glass,” Garcia said.
The MTA says it has installed metal baskets that are supposed to catch debris like this, but it doesn’t seem to have worked in this particular case.
Local
“We are investigating how and why the bolt came loose and was not caught by the system as designed,” the MTA told NBC New York in a statement, adding that the section of the track was last inspected less than a week ago on October 17.
Queens City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said that any amount of falling debris is “never acceptable.”
“While I am happy the MTA has agreed to install protective netting under the 7 train, it is essential that the MTA reviews the entirety of the line to assure that all materials are securely fastened so that no debris falls through and endangers the lives of anyone for simply being under the trestle,” Van Bramer said. “It is shocking that this even needs to be said, but people shouldn’t have to be scared to pass underneath the 7 train.”
This is hardly the first time an incident like this has happened, especially under the 7 line. A piece of metal fell onto a car in Woodside in June, and a wooden beam pierced the windshield of an SUV in the same neighborhood in February.
