3 hurt as train derails near 125th Street

MANHATTAN, NY — Three people were hurt and dozens evacuated after a southbound A train derailed near 125th Street, tearing one of the doors off the car.  

Commuter Skip Suva, 28, was riding on a southbound A train approaching 125th Street just before 10 am when he said "the train started shaking insanely violently, the lights started flickering. I was leaning against the left door, on the left side of the train, and the right door was ripped open."

"It was really dark, tons of smoke and dust, and white chunky things," he said. "There was a lot of distortion on the floor. The metal was pushed in, and either the door was jammed… or it was totally pulled off, like, opened like a book."

Carrie Courogen, of Washington Heights, said "we were going fast and all of a sudden I felt this big bump, like it went up in the air and rocked side to side in the air, off the tracks. I flew up onto my seat and onto the ground. It came to a screeching halt. We saw sparks. It smelled so bad, like burnt rubber."

Courougen said riders were desperate to escape and several people tried to open windows or doors to get out during a harrowing period with no information from the conductor as smoke built up in the car.

The MTA blamed a power outage, but didn’t provide further details. They refused to confirm whether a train had derailed for nearly an hour, saying only that a "subway incident" had elapsed. They finally confirmed a derailment shortly before 11 am.

All A, D, and E trains were suspended between Jay St. Metrotech and 207th Street and the C train was completely suspended in both directions.

FDNY officials said they were called to the scene by a report of a smoke condition at West 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue about 9:48 am, a spokesman said.