SOUTH BRONX — An MTA worker survived a fiery explosion after a trash can was thrown onto the subway tracks at Cypress Avenue on Sunday morning and touched the electrified third rail, according to the MTA and video of the incident.
A YouTube clip posted Sunday shows a MTA employee going down onto the tracks and picking up what appears to be a piece of wood to poke at a bin on the northbound 6 train tracks. Several blasts then occur, with one appearing to engulf the worker, the video shows.
The man was not injured, and the MTA is investigating the incident, a spokesman for agency said. The
"Workers can get hurt, burnt and even killed by these arc explosions. He was lucky," Jim Gannon, the spokesman for New York Transport Workers Union, wrote in a statement, noting the man was the train's operator.
"I don't know if there's surveillance video on who threw the garbage can onto the tracks, but it was an act that definitely put public safety and worker safety at risk. This is a little more than kids being kids doing stupid pranks," Gannon wrote.
A video showing a similar explosion on the C line tracks at the Nostrand Avenue station in Brooklyn resulted in a 16-year-old being arrested for arson.
