Mayor Wu’s MBTA ceiling panel joke knocked as ‘insensitive’

One of Mayor Michelle Wu’s jokes at the St. Patrick’s Day breakfast was an egg, some say.

Wu, appearing to knock the MBTA for its frustrating slow zones, used the example of a ceiling panel that fell March 1 at the Harvard station nearly hitting a woman as a comedic hook.

Wu joked at the breakfast that Gov. Maura Healey gave her an update on the toppled panel and said “the MBTA’s internal investigation was complete and it said the tile was actually scheduled to fall an hour-and-a-half before that but there were some delays.”

She got some laughs and quickly added she “still rides the T.”

Mela Bush-Miles, director of the MBTA Riders’ Union, said the mayor’s joke writer needs to find the straphanger who was “nearly killed” and make “sure she’s OK.” A 25-pound ceiling panel just missing you isn’t comedy — it was almost a tragedy, Bush-Miles added.

“That was insensitive,” Bush-Miles told the Herald Monday. “You need to see how that woman is doing. … Someone wrote that because I don’t think Michelle Wu is like that.”

A comment from the mayor’s office was not immediately forthcoming.

The 21-year-old Suffolk University student nearly hit couldn’t be reached for comment, she did tell WBZ in early March that “in the moment, I was definitely very shaken up.”

The water-logged aluminum panel fell about 10 feet, just as the student was walking by, causing the young woman to momentarily freeze and look up before sidestepping the damage and walking away.

“We’re extremely fortunate that there wasn’t an injury as a result of this,” MBTA Interim General Manager Jeffrey Gonneville said at a press conference three days later. “It was very close.”

Bush-Miles said the T’s troubles are not funny for riders who rely on the transit service to get to work so they can pay the bills. She added a fellow Riders’ Union member has gone around recording all the safety issues — including rusted beams, damaged panels, columns cracking, escalators and staircases she avoids and water damage all over the system.

“It’s a miracle that woman wasn’t hit. It would have broken her neck,” said Bush-Miles. “It’s true the T is always late, but you just need to be careful with your words.”

The T has said it will conduct a system-wide audit to prevent another ceiling collapse.