Transit Worker Plunges Down Shaft Near IHOP

IMG_3114Stephen Rex Brown

A transit worker fell about 15 feet in a subway ventilation shaft beneath a grate on East 14th Street Friday morning, the Fire Department said. He was not seriously injured.

Stephen Rex Brown

The worker, in his 60s, was on the ladder built into the shaft beneath the grate in front of the IHOP restaurant at 237 E. 14th Street, near the Third Avenue stop on the L around 10:35 a.m., the authorities said. He was inspecting the grate when he fell from the ladder, said Charles Seaton, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, sustained minor neck and back injuries and was being treated at Bellevue Hospital Center.