Big Plank Of Wood Falls From Ceiling At Bedford Ave L Stop, Narrowly Missing Woman

First the historic flood. Then the noxious fumes. And while we'd braced ourselves for the next L train plague to be frog-related, according to one shaken commuter, we're now at the "sky is literally falling" stage of calamity.

Jumi, a Williamsburg resident who asked that we withhold her last name, tells Gothamist that she was inches away from being struck by a falling wooden board while waiting for the L train this morning. The board, which appeared to be emblazoned with the word "hole," had apparently been separating the platform at Bedford Avenue from... some mystery space above.

"I'm pretty shaken up," Jumi said. "I feel I should buy a lotto ticket."

She added, "It looked like a pretty solid piece of plywood. It made a huge bang. We all started running because there was a big dust cloud from the plaster. When the dust settled I was talking to people around me and they said it was maybe five inches from hitting me. I’m pretty sure a piece of rebar hit me but I was wearing a winter jacket."

Other Twitter users corroborated Jumi's version of events.

Of course, this isn't the first time shit has crumbled and/or fallen dangerously onto subway platforms. This past summer, a partial ceiling collapse at the Borough Hall subway station rained debris down on one woman, leaving her with a concussion.

But the distress of almost getting hit in the head by a falling board was compounded in this case, Jumi said, by the ongoing confusion L train riders have been forced to endure in recent months.

"Day to day you can definitely feel like there’s dust in the air, so I guess the bigger frustration is that we don't know [what's happening] in terms of our safety," she said, referring both the recent mysterious odor situation and the ongoing fears about silica dust threatening riders under the new L train plan. "I think I wouldn’t have been so angry if there had been more transparency coming from Cuomo’s office and the MTA."

The MTA did not immediately respond to inquiries about this morning's incident. When asked last week about the air quality along the L line and dust at the Bedford Avenue station specifically, an MTA spokesperson said, "air quality readings consistently have remained well within applicable safety guidelines."

To cap off her Friday morning commute, Jumi soon found herself stuck underground on a different train.

A spokesperson for the MTA has provided Gothamist with the following statement: "This shouldn’t have happened and we take it very seriously. We’re conducting a full investigation and will take measures with the contractor to ensure it doesn’t happen again. After this incident happened we immediately secured the board and made sure that all other similar boards at the station are properly secured."

The spokesperson added that the plywood was covering an opening that was created for a future new staircase at the station. No one was injured, and the plywood was immediately removed from the platform, the spokesperson said.