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   NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Metropolitan   
   Transportation Authority Tom Prendergast, Fire Commissioner   
   Daniel Nigro, and other public officials rushed to the scene   
   when a Long Island Rail Road train crashed into the Atlantic   
   Terminal in Brooklyn and left 103 people injured Wednesday   
   morning.   
      
   But Mayor Bill de Blasio was not there.   
      
   As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, the mayor   
   said the incident did not demand his presence.   
      
   “It’s a magnitude question,” de Blasio said.   
      
   PHOTOS: LIRR Train Crash In Brooklyn   
      
   De Blasio said he did not think the incident was as serious as,   
   say, the December 2013 Metro-North Railroad accident in Spuyten   
   Duyvil, the Bronx, in which four people died and 63 were   
   injured. So he went ahead instead with plans to view an exhibit   
   of crime photos at the Brooklyn Museum and announce a historic   
   drop in crime.   
      
   Kramer asked de Blasio why he did not think the LIRR derailment   
   was of sufficient “magnitude.”   
      
   Kramer: “I wonder if you were briefed about it, and at what   
   point you decided it wasn’t of the magnitude that would require   
   (your presence).”   
      
   De Blasio: “Yeah, I was briefed about it right after it   
   happened. Given that, as you heard from (NYPD) Chief (of Transit   
   Joseph) Fox, the most serious injury that we know of to date,   
   thank God, was a broken leg, that just did not, again, seem like   
   the kind of incident we talked about, for example, years ago   
   because there was a horrible tragedy.”   
      
   The Spuyten Duyvil derailment came up because at the time, Mayor   
   Michael Bloomberg was off playing golf in Bermuda. As mayor-   
   elect at the time, de Blasio made it clear he would not be that   
   kind of leader.   
      
   “I’ll let the current mayor speak for himself,” de Blasio told   
   the Wall Street Journal in a Dec. 2, 2013 issue published a day   
   after the Metro-North incident. “For me, it would be, generally   
   speaking, important to be there. I think clearly this was the   
   governor’s purview…. (But) my instinct in these things is to be   
   present even if the city is not the lead.”   
      
   On Wednesday, however, de Blasio said going to the LIRR   
   derailment scene was not his job.   
      
   “The Long Island Rail Road, obviously, is the purview of the   
   governor,” he said.   
      
   The mayor has also come under fire for skipping other events –   
   some more important than others – and for being out of town to   
   do political business.   
      
   http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/01/04/de-blasio-lirr-crash/   
      
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