- The Washington Times - Monday, December 2, 2013

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was golfing in Bermuda on Sunday while Gov. Andrew Cuomo and local officials rushed to the scene of a deadly train derailment in the Bronx, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Mr. Bloomberg, who steps down on Dec. 31, didn’t leave the Mid Ocean golf club in Bermuda until noon — more than 4½ hours after a Metro-North train derailed, killing four passengers and injuring at least 60 more, a source told The New York Post.

The mayor arrived back in New York after nightfall Sunday and visited hospitals caring for the critically wounded.

When asked Sunday night by reporters after leaving one hospital why he wasn’t at the scene, Mr. Bloomberg said his presence would have been useless, as he is “not a professional firefighter or a police officer.”

“There’s nothing I can do,” he said. “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.

“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,” he said, the Wall Street Journal reported.

• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.

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