Subway train derails in New York City, injuring 19

USPA News - A subway train carrying some 1,000 passengers tilted and derailed in a tunnel in the New York City borough of Queens on Friday morning, injuring nineteen people, authorities said. Four of those injured were taken to hospital in a serious condition.

The incident occurred at 10:24 a.m. local time on Friday when six cars of an eight-car subway train derailed on an express track in a tunnel south of the 65th Street station in the Woodside section of Queens. The train, which was heading for Manhattan and Brooklyn, was carrying approximately 1,000 passengers. "The wheels of the first and last cars remained on the track," said Amanda Kwan, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Kwan said passengers on the train were evacuated through an emergency exit, an access hatch in the sidewalk. The operation, which involved dozens of firefighters and police officers, took approximately two hours to complete. Another train in the area was moved back to Queens Plaza where passengers were discharged. Authorities said a total of nineteen people were injured in the derailment, but fifteen of them were treated at the scene and released. The remaining four were transported to hospital in serious condition, some of them complaining of chest pains, but none of them suffered life-threatening injuries. The cause of Friday`s derailment was not immediately known. MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas Prendergast promised it would conduct a "thorough" investigation of the circumstances surrounding the incident. He said the MTA was in the process of carrying out a full inspection of signals, tracks and other infrastructure in the area. Train derailments are rare in New York City, which has one of the largest and busiest public transportation systems in the world. Four people were killed and 59 others were injured in December when a train derailed in the Bronx, and five people were killed and 215 others were injured when a subway train derailed at Union Square in August 1991.