Fried squirrel takes out mass transit
The Monday afternoon mass transit commute was brought to a grinding halt after a weird series of events resulted in power being lost at the Metro-North Commuter Railroad, stranding 47,000 rail commuters.
What caused this mess? A squirrel.
According to Metro-North spokeswoman Donna Evans, an adventurous squirrel climbed onto the railroad’s power lines and scampered around, electrocuting the rodent and causing a power surge. That weakened an overhead bracket, which led to a wire from the overhead bracket dangling down and getting snagged on a train passing underneath. All the lines were torn down.
With trains not running, would-be commuters couldn’t get out of Manhattan. People waited for hours, but the trains didn’t come.
Crews restored power Tuesday morning, and removed the charred remains of the squirrel.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment