Thirty people were slightly injured Tuesday in the New York subway (USA), when two cars derailed as they approached a Harlem station. Several hundred people were stranded for more than an hour in the subway tunnels.
The accident happened in the middle of the morning on line A, between the stations of 135th and 125th streets, said a spokesman for the firefighters of the largest city in the United States. “It took between an hour and an hour and a half” for everyone to come to the surface, he said.
The cause of the accident, which continued to disrupt traffic at the end of the day, was not immediately specified. It is “under investigation”, indicated the company MTA which manages New York public transport.
Emergency brake
According to the new boss of the MTA, quoted by the local channel New York 1, the derailment would have been preceded by the activation of the emergency brake of the train, for still unexplained reasons.
“We were riding at normal speed when suddenly – it was like a horse rearing up – we were thrown up, down, all around,” said a traveler in New York 1. “People were panicking, were standing up, crying and praying out loud. It was very traumatic, “added another.
The panic was caused in particular by the smoke which filled the tunnel. According to the boss of the MTA, it was caused by rubbish littering the road and caught fire with the accident.
This risks fueling a growing controversy over the state of the New York subway – one of the busiest in the world with more than 5.6 million journeys on average daily – and its need for renovation.
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