Angry drivers and canister-toting homeowners were ticked off at a Coney Island service station when they waited hours for gas only to see cops — in civilian vehicles — and emergency workers get to use a separate, faster, line.
“They’re letting all their friends go first,” complained Eugenie Darnell, 53, at the Hess station at 18th Avenue and Coney Island Avenue.
Darnell, of East New York, waited from 4 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. just to fill two canisters.
The main line for cars waiting to fill up snaked over a mile down Coney Island Avenue, while 100 people waited in another line to fill canisters to fuel generators.
Jean Eddy, 39, a Home Depot employee, was booted from the cops’ line after waiting from 11 p.m. Thursday to 2 a.m., then returned to the main line at 7 a.m. yesterday.
“I know they’re all cops, but it’s not fair to us. We’re all human beings,” Eddy said.
“Before, it was only police officers,” groused another man, who had been waiting since 7 a.m. “Now they’re having their family members come.”
But some drivers with horror stories to tell didn’t have a problem with the priority treatment.
“You don’t know if there’s an EMT guy going to save somebody’s life,” said George Davis, 25.
Davis, a student from Sheepshead Bay, spent Thursday night with two friends in his BMW sedan at the gas station.
“I got in last night, and at 85 cents the pump stopped. I was the only one who was allowed to stay at the pump overnight,” said Davis, who finally filled up at 11 a.m.
Wilson Cavasas, 42, slept in his livery cab on Coney Island Avenue so he could get back to the line early yesterday.
“What can I say about it?” he said of the priority line.
“They’re police.”