Kings Highway Station Fall Onto The Tracks
 |
[flickr/kevinly]
Stand clear of the platform edge and then some: A 14-year-old boy fell into the tracks at the Kings Highway subway station when the partial platform collapsed. Avi Katz was able to get away before the approaching Q train made it into the station.
Katz had been at the station around 6PM on January 29 and, per WABC 7, “stepped onto the edge of the platform to see if his train was coming.” The platform, made of wood, cracked and Katz fell three feet into the tracks. Katz, accompanied by his mother and Assemblyman Dov Hikind, spoke at a press conference, “I was laying on the tracks and I was really scared. My yarmulke fell off and I didn’t even care. I saw the train coming and all I could think was, ‘Get up, get up - this isn’t how I want to die.’”
Katz said it was hard for him to get up and after three attempts, he managed to get back to the platform. Though the MTA did patch up the platform, Hikind questioned the MTA’s commitment to maintenance; pointing to the decrepit conditions (per WCBS 2, “crumbling concrete, rotted wood, and burned-out lightbulbs”), he asked, “This is our transit system that we spend billions and billions of dollars for it to look like this, at one of the busiest transit stations?”
And right now, Katz is too scared to take the subway: “I just, every single time I see the train pass by I’m thinking about me on the tracks.”
Posted: February 11th, 2008 under Accidents, Kings Highway, Video.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from tomd
Time February 11, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I use this station every day and it truly is in need of repair and maintenance . Try exiting of the station on the East 16th Street side after it rains…the stairway landings are flooded to the point where your whole foot is submerged in water.
[Reply]
Comment from Anonymous
Time February 11, 2008 at 11:56 pm
The condition of the station should never have been allowed to deteriorate to such a point in the first place as to cause the potential for serious injury to anyone, especially a child, but the political grandstanding by the Assemblyman is so typical. I noticed that neither he nor the media made any mention of the fact that public hearings took place last year regarding the century old elevated stations on this line, and that they are all scheduled to be replaced with new structures in a multi-year project that is set to begin in the near future. Apparently the story is much more sensational & newsworthy without mentioning all the facts.
[Reply]
Comment from Alan Abbey
Time May 20, 2008 at 3:30 am
Now that’s scared! So scared he isn’t worried about his “yarmulke.” What would the rebbe say? Alls I can say is I never fell through the platform when it was the D train and I took it to the city.
[Reply]
Comment from RosarioHoyt
Time November 16, 2008 at 12:13 am
That is so sad and scary. It must’ve been teffifying. Imagine not being able to get back up. I agree that people shouldn’t stand toward the egde. This is why I always stand away from the edge but it’s scary to even think of this.
[Reply]
Comment from ph2072
Time February 11, 2008 at 3:42 pm
And they have the nerve to be considering an increase in transportation fares. Ridiculous.
[Reply]