BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Ninety three people died and 250 others were hurt when a five-car wooden subway train derailed near where the Prospect Park station stands today.

On Friday, officials unveiled a plaque, and named the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Empire Boulevard, "Malbone Centennial Way" to mark the worst subway crash in New York history.

"It's right that we should commemorate those poor souls who were lost and isn't it fantastic that 101 years old, to the day we're finally doing what should have been done years ago," said Transit President Andy Byford.

The train, operated by an untrained motorman during a strike, barreled into a sharp curve at 30 mph in a tunnel beneath Malbone Street during the evening rush hour.

The crash was so traumatic that officials soon renamed most of Malbone Street, Empire Boulevard.

"The generation of transit workers never forgot what happened on that day. But the public perception of it was, it was something better to have been forgotten. And by and large, it was," said Conecetta Bencivenga, Director, of New York Transit Museum.

Francis Valerio of Ladder Company 113, the unit that responded to the disaster back in 1918, learned about it from a captain when he joined the FDNY 20 years ago. Valerio was troubled that the wreck's 100th anniversary was about to pass without any public acknowledgment.

“Anything that's been 100 years of New York history is not forgotten about whether it's the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the General Slocum fire and other tragedies that have happened and for some reason nobody really knew about this," said Firefighter Francis Valerio.

Valerio reached out to the borough president's office. And that led to a wreath-laying ceremony last year.

After the crash, reforms were put in place. Wooden cars were phased out for sturdier models that included steel, stringent training requirements were implemneted for motormen, and controls that stop trains from operating at unsafe speeds were added.

Those safety measures are one legacy of the disaster. The new plaque, and street name, is another legacy, one that ensures more people will know about the worst day in city transit history.