New York subway train nearly impaled by giant drill

NEW YORK -- A giant drill bit narrowly missed impaling a moving train on a New York subway line in a bizarre and frightening accident.

Shortly before noon Thursday, a train operator on a northbound F train in Queens reported that something struck the top of the train, setting off the emergency brakes.

Upon investigation, the train operator found debris under the third car and saw damage to the top of the train and vision glass from a giant drill.

"This much space left, thank God I sat on the other side of the train, that could have been me," said Stephanie Cruz, a passenger on the train. Cruz tweeted the shocking tale to Eyewitness News.

The train was about 700 feet outside of the 21 Street Station. A reach train was used to get approximately 800 customers transported to the 21 Street Station platform.

Cruz shared video of nearly 1,000 passengers on the jam-packed train, snaking their way out a back door and on a service walkway, to the station.

The Metropolitan Transport Authority said the errant drill bit was from a subcontractor, Griffin Dewatering, as part of the ongoing East Side Access Project, which eventually will link the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal.

Workers were boring a hole for the project, but obviously drilled in the wrong spot, as the fully loaded F train thundered along.

Workers and supervisors converged on the site to try to figure out how they managed to drop the drill in what clearly was the wrong spot.

The site was shutdown all day Friday and the giant drill was in pieces.

Neighbors shook their heads in disbelief. Most residents rely on the F train to get into and out of Manhattan.