What caused the subway train derailment in Manhattan? Investigation is underway as more than 20 injured

A subway collision between two trains caused a derailment on Thursday, December 5 in Manhattan. The incident took place at around 3 p.m., near the 96th Street subway station on the Upper West Side.

At the time of the crash, one of the trains was carrying 300 passengers while the other was an out-of-service MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority train) train with four workers.

More than 20 people sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the accident, as per officials. Speaking about the derailment, NYC Transit President Richard Davey said:

“The trains, literally, at slow speed, thankfully, bumped into each other just north of the station.”

He said that two trains should not bump into one another and they are going to investigate the incident. Davey noted that they learned of vandalism concerning the out-of-service train:

“A number of emergency cords had been pulled earlier by someone. They were able to reset all of them except one, and that was the reason why that train was still stuck in the station.”

While the workers were resetting the rest of the train’s cords, the train started moving at a red stop signal. The passenger train was moving toward the express track to pass by the other train.

While switching over from the express track, the passenger train hit the out-of-service train as it suddenly started moving, causing both to derail.

Richard Davey expressed his relief that the derailment did not cause any serious injuries and that officials were able to evacuate everyone safely.

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Passengers recount the accident after derailment at the Manhattan subway

As per the NYPD, when the two trains collided near the 96th Street subway station, a good Samaritan alerted two transit K-9 officers who were assigned to the station at the time. Michael Kemper, Chief of Transit at NYPD said:

“They rendered aid, again requested EMS to respond to the scene, and then those officers, along with additional officers, that responded helped people off the trains and onto the platforms to safety.”

New York City Fire Department’s assistant chief Michael Meyers said in a derailment situation such as this one, operating on the tracks and evacuating passengers is “incredibly perilous”.

He said that it's dangerous for both the emergency responders and the people who moving between the tracks. Meyers and his team requested the power to be turned off when they arrived on the scene so that they could start the evacuation.

One passenger, who was on a separate train that got stuck behind the crash site for an hour due to the derailment, described the chaotic situation that unfolded after the collision:

“There were people getting off the train and running on the rails.”

As the passengers exited the train, the derailment site left them shocked as one recounted:

“The floors were all crunched up. The seats were really bad. They didn’t even look like seats no more. The poles were all bent.”

Another said:

“I hit my head against the window. People were getting hurt, basically.”

Describing how the train was shaking during the collision, one passenger said:

“The train started shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, very hard. Everyone was scared, screaming. There was a lot of children. Everyone was trying to call 911.”

Another commuter shared that the crash felt like a “loud boom:"

“Everybody on the train kind of, like, swayed back and forth crazily, and there was a loud explosion. And all of the sudden, the train stopped, kind of, smoke was coming into the car. It was insane. It was super nerve-wracking.”

One passenger, Gregory King, said:

“I thought the concrete on top of the train was going to fall in. I thought the subway was going to fall in on us.”

Transit officials said that full subway service might not be resumed until Friday. They noted that a lot of work needs to be done to restore the service.