Person Fatally Struck By 7 Train, Snarling Service For Hours

LONG ISLAND CITY, NY — The MTA put the brakes on 7 train service during Tuesday morning rush hour after a man was fatally struck by a train in the tunnel between Queens and Manhattan, officials said.

The man was hit just after 8:30 a.m. Tuesday by a Manhattan-bound 7 train heading from the Vernon Boulevard-Jackson Avenue station in Queens to Grand Central Station, according to MTA spokesperson Shams Tarek.

Police told PIX11 they believe the man fell inside the train tunnel. There is no indication the person was a track worker, Tarek said.

The incident shut down 7 train service between Queens and Manhattan for over four hours while MTA workers moved trains aside to allow first responders to get to the person who was struck.

Regular service got back on track just before 1 p.m., the MTA tweeted.

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Two riders on the 7 train stuck in the tunnel between Queens and Manhattan told Patch they were trapped underground for roughly an hour and a half before officials evacuated them.

Queens resident Lauren McGrew said she was heading to Manhattan that morning when her 7 train stopped short in the tunnel. An announcement informed riders the train's emergency brake had been activated but didn't say why.

"It was kind of stressful because it was 8:30 and everyone was on their way to work and there was no service," she wrote in a message to a Patch reporter. "I tried texting my coworkers to let them know but couldn't get anything through."

As McGrew waited for the train to get moving, transit workers started evacuating passengers from a second train stuck behind hers in the Manhattan-bound tunnel, according to the MTA spokesperson.

That train headed back to the Vernon Boulevard station to drop off riders, then returned into the tunnel to help workers evacuate the people still stuck on the first train, Tarek said.

It was like a "rescue train," McGrew said.

She and her fellow riders walked through the two trains, then got out on the platform at Vernon Boulevard.

But by the time EMS managed to reach the person — nearly two hours after he was struck by the train — it was too late, a Fire Department spokesperson said. The person was already dead.

Here’s the train evacuation in fast forward #7train pic.twitter.com/7h6iRaf1VZ
— matt atkinson (@mattatkinson) October 8, 2019

Meanwhile, the delays on the 7 line forced riders to crowd onto other subway lines.

Haley Vassiljev said she was waiting for the 7 train at Court Square on her way to work that morning when an announcement warned of major delays, so she joined a flood of commuters rushing to transfer to the E/M trains at that station.

"It was dangerously crowded," Vassiljev told Patch.

All told, her 15-minute commute to Bryant Park took three times as long.

But when she found out later that a person had died, she changed tune: "I feel guilty for complaining," she said.