Subway platform collapse puts teen on tracks; MTA still hasn't fixed it

BY MATTHEW LYSIAK and ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Monday, February 11th 2008, 4:00 AM

Avi Katz, with mom, Rena, says Q platform crumbled under his feet.
A Borough Park teen said a subway platform crumbled under his feet and sent him sprawling in front of an oncoming train - but the MTA still hasn't fixed the problem.

Avi Katz, 14, said he was heading home from his Brooklyn yeshiva and standing on the outdoor Kings Highway station when he stepped onto the edge to look for the Q train. Suddenly, he tumbled to the tracks as the wooden platform cracked under his feet.

"The wood snapped and I fell on the tracks," Avi said yesterday at a news conference with his mother and Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn).

"I was laying on the tracks and I was really scared," Avi said. "My yarmulke fell off and I didn't even care. I saw the train coming and all I could think was, 'Get up, get up - this isn't how I want to die.'"

The closest light bulb was burned out, he said, so no one could see him. He said he scrambled to safety seconds before a train barreled into the station and is too scared to ride the subway again.

"I'm still real sore and I can't run as fast as I used to" after the Jan. 29 incident, Avi said. "Every time I see a train pass by I think of me on the tracks."

Avi's mother, Rena Katz, said she complained to the token clerk, but the only change was a wooden plank nailed over the gaping hole. Now she said she is planning legal action against the MTA.

The MTA did not respond to requests for comments yesterday.

"Does someone have to die before something happens?" she said. "There is no excuse that this station is in such disrepair - my son could be dead."

alisberg@nydailynews.com