Prospect Heights

Council hopeful blasts de Blasio over LIRR crash absence

John Quaglione says, ‘Bad move Mr. Mayor’

January 6, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Emergency personnel work at the scene at Atlantic Terminal after New York City authorities said a Long Island Rail Road train hit a bumping block at the station in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Jan. 4. Photo by Aaron D. Neufeld via AP
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Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision not to visit the scene of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) crash at the Atlantic Terminal on Jan. 4 has opened him up to a great deal of criticism and negative publicity in the wake of the accident.

One of the sharpest blasts came from Bay Ridge resident John Quaglione, a Republican-Conservative who is considering running a City Council seat this year.

Quaglione, who is deputy chief of staff to state Sen. Marty Golden (R-C-Bay Ridge-Southwest Brooklyn), was all over Twitter and Facebook in the aftermath of the derailment when it was reported by several media outlets that de Blasio was a no-show at the accident scene.

“Bad move Mr. Mayor,” Quaglione tweeted and Facebooked. “You got (sic) to be there.”

Quaglione, who is eyeing a run for the City Council seat in the 43rd Council District (Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-parts of Bensonhurst) currently held by term-limited Democrat Vincent Gentile, said he felt compelled to vent his frustration with the Democratic mayor after learning that he did not go to the LIRR station to asses the damage or visit hospitals to see how the victims were doing.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and MTA President and CEO Thomas Prendergast were at the crash scene.

“It’s very alarming as a resident of the city to see a mayor not responding to a serious situation,” Quaglione told the Brooklyn Eagle on Jan. 5, the day after the crash.

“I learned from Sen. Golden that you have to be there in a crisis. People are looking to you for comfort, reassurance and leadership and for clarity purposes. You can explain to the public what happened. It’s his city. He should have been there, or he should have visited the injured in the hospital,” Quaglione said.

Quaglione recalled that in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack, Golden, who was a City Council member in 2001, organized a relief effort to assist workers at Ground Zero.

At the time of the LIRR crash on Wednesday, de Blasio was holding a press conference at the Brooklyn Museum. The topic of discussion at the press conference centered by the city’s lowering crime rate.

The mayor told reporters afterward that he did not feel the need to go to the LIRR crash scene because the commuter rail line comes under the jurisdiction of the governor and because the derailment did not cause life-threatening injuries to train passengers.

More than 100 people were injured in the accident. The incident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

“Long Island Rail Road is obviously the purview of the governor. But more importantly, thank God these are very minor injuries,” DNAinfo quoted de Blasio as saying.

Quaglione, meanwhile, said he received a lot of feedback on both Twitter and Facebook, most of it from people supporting his position.

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