MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- The MTA on Tuesday admitted to multiple failures that allowed a group of teenagers to get into a parked subway train in Brooklyn and then take it for a ride.
At one point the train was moving at more than 30 miles per hour. One of the boys recorded a video and posted it on social media, hurtling beneath the streets of Sunset Park.
Aaron Morrison is a train operator, and he's outraged.
"The onus is on the MTA to stop this, because this is well known," said Morrison of TWU Local #100. "It's a well-known issue. So, we have to get this addressed immediately."
Morrison says the cab doors are routinely locked, but the key is standard and works on every subway train in the transit system. They're either stolen or purchased on the black market.
The teens managed to board an R train while it was unoccupied and out-of-service at 10:30 p.m., then drove it for an unknown distance before returning to the 36th Street Station where they took off. Through it all, no one was injured.
It happened 10 days ago and two boys, aged 15 and 17, were arrested on Monday.
MTA officials are still unable to explain the obvious lapse in security.
"We are having conversations, internally, to review safety protocols, looking at the locks to ensure that these safe spaces remain secured and protected," said MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara. "And we are committed and looking at what we can do better to improve on these features and policies."
Rieara said that was done after an incident before this one, but says "there's always opportunity to build upon."
"We have train buffs out here. We nickname them 'train buffs'-people that watch YouTube videos and things on the internet about how to operate these trains," Morrison said. "But there's a difference between operating these trains and actually getting into them. So, they have to secure these cabs, and these trains, so that this doesn't happen."
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