MTA Subway Conductor Dies Of Coronavirus

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — A longtime subway worker died from the new coronavirus Thursday, the first known fatal COVID-19 case among the MTA's workforce of more than 70,000 people, according to transit officials and news reports. He was 49.

New York City Transit conductor Peter Petrassi spent 20 years working for the MTA and most recently worked in transit operations in Long Island City, the transit authority said in a news release announcing his death.

He worked in the Queens rail crew office where 30 employees were asked to self-quarantine last week after a worker tested positive for the new coronavirus, according to the New York Daily News.

"Peter’s coworkers loved working with him, he brightened everyone’s day and was a joy to be around," Sally Librera, SVP of subways, said. "We are all deeply saddened by his untimely passing."

Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano, whose union represents 41,000 of New York's public transit workers, called Petrassi's death a terrible tragedy and reiterated calls for the MTA to provide front-line workers with masks to protect them from the contagious virus.

"Conductor Petrassi’s passing is a line-of-duty death just as if he had been killed on the job in any number of ways that have struck down transit workers in years past," Utano said in a statement. "The MTA must NOW provide masks to front-line transit workers. Otherwise, the moment is rapidly approaching where bus and subway workers will do what is necessary to protect themselves and their families."

Petrassi was among at least 52 transit workers who have tested positive for the new coronavirus, and at least two transit workers with COVID-19 were hospitalized in critical condition this week, the Daily News reported.

The hospitalized MTA employees include a bus dispatcher who was working at the Fresh Pond Road bus depot in Queens, according to the Daily News.

The transit authority last week ordered 34 employees at that depot to self-quarantine after learning of three workers there who may have tested positive for the virus, MTA Senior Advisor Ken Lovett said.

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