Close call! The moment a 25-pound ceiling panel collapses at the Harvard subway station, narrowly missing a dazed commuter
- A large panel from the ceiling fell onto the platform of the Harvard subway station near Boston, narrowly missing a passenger.
- The incident occurred just before 4 p.m. last Wednesday and was captured on surveillance video.
- The footage shows the passenger coming to a sudden stop as the panel fell inches in front of them, causing a cloud of dust; other passengers did not seem to notice the incident.
A passenger was nearly struck when a large ceiling panel collapsed onto the platform at a Boston-area subway station.
Surveillance video shows the passenger stopping in his tracks as the panel fell from the ceiling in front of them at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Harvard station in Cambridge.
An alternate angle then shows the passengers looking up at the ceiling in shock as they try to understand what happened and how lucky they were to be badly injured.
The video shows the panel descending inches from the startled passenger who stops dead. The traveler stops, then walks around him and heads towards a stairway.
The other passengers did not see what had happened or hear anything, as they could be seen going about their business, including boarding a waiting subway train.
A large panel from the ceiling fell onto the platform of the Harvard subway station near Boston, narrowly missing a passenger.
The panel collapsed between a couple walking up the stairs and another traveler
The footage shows the passenger coming to a sudden stop as the panel fell inches in front of them, leaving them shrouded in a cloud of black dust.
The traveler was walking on the platform when the panel was suddenly lost, on the right
The incident occurred just before 4:00 pm last Wednesday and raised a cloud of dust.
Aluminum panels normally weigh around 5 pounds, but this one had been flooded and was up to 25 pounds.
The panel fell about 10 feet, MBTA interim general manager Jeff Gonneville said at a news conference.
“I am extremely grateful and relieved that there were no injuries as a result of this accident,” he said.
The MBTA removed another 10 panels at the station, which has between 400 and 500 in total.
The traveler looked up in shock after what had occurred directly in front of them.
The MBTA quickly closed off the area while engineers inspected the panels and removed those that posed an immediate safety concern.
Aluminum panels normally weigh around 5 pounds, but the one that fell had been waterlogged and weighed up to 25 pounds.
Over time, water collected in the panel’s insulation and corroded the metal rivets that held it together.
“Our initial findings show that, over time, water accumulated in the panel’s insulation and corroded the metal rivets that held it together. We are removing the remaining non-structural panels as a precaution and so that we can fully investigate the roof and the source of the water intrusion,” the MBTA wrote in a tweet.
The panels date from 1978 and the one that fell was wet and showed signs of corrosion, Gonneville explained. The suspended panels do not affect the structural integrity of the station and are used for aesthetics and soundproofing.
The agency is also inspecting other stations in the system with drop ceilings, though it noted that Harvard’s design is unique.
The panels were installed in 1978. Non-structural panels are suspended from the ceiling and are used for aesthetics and soundproofing.
The remaining non-structural panels were removed as a precaution to determine the source of the water.
“We are using all of our resources to investigate this issue, discover its cause, and implement the necessary solutions to ensure that it does not happen again,” he said.
A 2021 safety inspection by outside engineers at the station found no visible defects in the panels, the general manager said.
The incident remains under investigation.