(The New York Daily News posted the following article by Lisa L. Colangelo, Kerry Burke and Robert Ingrassia on its website on April 30.)
NEW YORK — Subway workers are being trained to “cut and run” — leaving panicked riders behind — if terrorists unleash a chemical attack, the transit union warned yesterday.
Transit supervisors told employees during recent chemical-attack training sessions to don gas masks — and get out of trains and stations, Transport Workers Union Local 100 told a City Council committee.
“What they expect our members to do in the event of a nuclear, biological or chemical incident would be to … get out of your cab and leave the public behind,” said Jimmy Willis, the union assistant to the president.
“My question to them when they explained it to me was, ‘Are you asking us to cut and run?’ And I asked it again, ‘Are you asking us to cut and run?’ and the answer I got was, ‘Yes, cut and run.'”
Last night, a Transit Authority official disputed the union’s contention that workers are being instructed to leave passengers to fend for themselves in a chemical or biological attack. “We want them (the workers) to be able to identify what’s going on, notify our command structure and yes, we want them to leave,” said TA spokesman Paul Fleuranges. “But we don’t expect them to leave anyone behind.”
The union’s charges come amid heightened concerns that the subway system is considered a prime terror target.
Cops have beefed up their presence at stations, National Guard teams check for chemical and biological agents — and riders are told to report suspicious activity.
But the union said the Transit Authority hasn’t made security a priority and charged it isn’t ready for a terror attack.
Willis said employees have only been given pamphlets and a brief course that essentially tells them to save themselves.
“Lives are at stake,” said Willis, a train conductor for 15 years. “If the MTA does have a sound, coherent and effective program to cope with the next terrorist event, we need to know about it now. Not on game day.”
Before Willis testified, transit officials defended the TA’s actions in preparing for biological, chemical and other possible terror attacks. They said workers are being trained to recognize a gas attack, notify authorities and help evacuate the system.
Many subway employees also have been issued escape hoods that will protect them for 15 minutes, transit officials testified.
But some Council members weren’t satisfied. “To instruct anyone to cut and run is an outrage. We need our people properly trained to stand and protect, not cut and run,” said Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens), chairman of the Public Safety Committee.
At one point, he pressed Willis to say who told workers to cut and run. Willis pointed to Rocco Cortese, the Transit Authority’s assistant vice president for operations training, who had testified at the hearing earlier.
Riders who were told yesterday about the union’s charges expressed outrage.
“It’s just horrible, absolutely horrible,” said Juanita Peele, 38, a customer service representative from the Bronx, riding the No. 7 train. “They’re going to just leave us to whatever happens, while raising the fare.”
But Shirley Parker, 40, a Police Department administrative aide from Brooklyn, said she doubts subway workers would be much help anyway during a chemical attack.
“I would run too,” said Parker, riding a downtown E train in Manhattan. “What can they do in a gas or biological attack?”