New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was reportedly on a golf course in Bermuda when a commuter train derailed on Sunday in the Bronx, leaving four people dead and 60 injured.
The Wall Street Journal cited “a person who spotted the mayor” and who said Bloomberg was playing at the members-only Mid Ocean Club and “was golfing in the early morning and did not leave the course until roughly 1 p.m.” The train crash occurred at about 7:20 a.m.
Bloomberg, who will leave office at the end of this month, owns a house in Bermuda and regularly travels to the island. In late 2010, his trips were criticized after he was absent in the aftermath of a blizzard.
On Sunday night, Bloomberg defended himself when asked by reporters why he was not at the scene of the derailment.
“What can I do? I’m not a professional firefighter or a police officer. There’s nothing I can do. What I can do is make sure that the right people from New York City – our police commissioner, our fire commissioner and our emergency management commissioner – are there and that they have all the resources that they want,” Bloomberg said. “I was briefed a few minutes, probably a half an hour after the train wreck, or the first time that I’d heard about it, and we responded in the ways that I think the city should be proud of our emergency first responders. They did exactly what they are supposed to do.”
Metro-North is operated by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which is a state agency.
