11-21-1997

The response to the subway accident in Astoria yesterday was hailed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and other officials as a model of how city agencies mesh in an emergency. But confusion rather than synergy marked the response to the crash of the R and G trains. Despite repeated requests from fire commanders, the Transit Authority failed to cut off electrical power to the E and F lines for almost 50 minutes, Newsday found. And the fire commanders were unaware that the power they were asking the TA to cut off was in the wrong tunnel, which was blocks away, even though power at the scene had been cut immediately. Fire commanders at the scene of the accident at the Steinway Street stop on the G and R local lines did not know that the E and F express service was in a separate tunnel, according to sources familiar with the incident. G and R trains run in the same tunnel as E and F trains through central Queens, but the G and R loop north into Astoria for five stops between Queens Plaza and Roosevelt Avenue. Transit officials could not explain why they cut power for more than 45 minutes during the morning rush on the E and F lines, where they run separately from the R and G, or why the TA ignored the earlier requests until 9:30 a.m. The TA restored power to the express tracks at 10:17 a.m., authority spokesman Robert Slovak said. "The Police Department and the Fire Department worked beautifully together at this incident. I think this went extremely well. The management went well," said Jerome Hauer, director of the city's Office of Emergency Management. But Fire Department sources said fire commanders on the scene got conflicting information from the TA about the location of the express tracks and the power situation. The sources, asking not to be identified, said TA officials initially told them that power would not be cut to the express tracks and later said in two separate conversations that while power was still on, no trains were running. Hauer said the decision on whether to cut power was made by Fire Chief Donald Burns, the Fire Department's citywide tour commander for the shift during which the crash occurred. "There was a discussion about the power, but Chief Burns made the decision - you always error [on the] side of safety," Hauer said. "From my understanding they discussed it and it was resolved." Hauer said in a later telephone conversation that he had double checked and that power to the express track was never turned off. "This was based on the safety decision that it posed no real threat," he said.