A commuter train struck an SUV that was stuck on the tracks in a suburban New York community during the afternoon rush hour Tuesday, killing the car's driver and six passengers on board the train.
The crash, which was the deadliest incident in the history of the Metro-North rail system, sent hundreds of passengers scrambling for safety. Authorities said the impact was so forceful the electrified third rail came up and pierced the train.
"You have seven people who started out today to go about their business and aren't going to be making it home tonight," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a press conference late Tuesday.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said that 12 people were injured, 10 of them seriously, and described the train as "completely charred and burned."
"I am amazed anyone got off that train alive," Astorino added. "It must have been pure panic, with the flames, the third rail and the smoke."
Authorities said the railroad crossing gates had come down on top of the Jeep Cherokee, which had stopped on the train tracks. The female driver got out to inspect the vehicle and got back into it to drive away when it was struck at around 6:30 p.m. local time, approximately 45 minutes after departing New York's Grand Central Station.
Rick Hope told WNYW that he was in his car directly behind the Jeep when it was struck by the train. He said he had started to back up his car to give the woman room to also back up but when she got back into the Jeep she moved forward into the path of the oncoming train.
"It looks like where she stopped she did not want to go on the tracks but the proximity of the gate to her car, you know, it was dark -- maybe she didn't know she was in front of the gate," Hope said.
"I am amazed anyone got off that train alive."- Rob Astorino, Westchester County Executive
The train shoved the SUV about 10 train car lengths as smoke poured out of the scorched front rail car, its windows blackened. It was unclear how fast the train was going, but the maximum would be 60 mph, a railroad official said.
Passengers on the train said they felt a jolt, then heard a huge explosion.
"I was horrified — the crash and the flames," passenger Devon Champagne told the New York Post. "I thought I was going to die for a minute. It was the scariest moment of my life."
The paper reported that some tried to reach passengers in the first car of the train, which sustained the heaviest damage.
"They were basically trapped in there with the fire," said passenger Jamie Wallace. "A few of us in my car tried to break the glass so we could get through, but to no avail."
More than 750 passengers were likely aboard the train. About 400 passengers got off from the rear of the train and taken to a nearby rock climbing gym for shelter. Buses were headed there to pick them up and take them to their destinations.
All railroad grade crossings have gate arms that are designed to lift automatically if they strike a vehicle no the way down, railroad safety consultant Grady Cothen said. The arms are made of wood and are designed to be easily broken if a car trapped between them moves forward or backward, he said.
Metro-North is the nation's second-busiest railroad, after the Long Island Rail Road. It was formed in 1983 and serves about 280,000 riders a day in New York and Connecticut. Service on its Harlem Line was suspended between Pleasantville and North White Plains after the crash.
Metro-North has had many recent accidents. Late last year, the National Transportation Safety Board issued rulings on five accidents that occurred in New York and Connecticut in 2013 and 2014, repeatedly finding fault with the railroad while also noting that conditions have improved.
Among the accidents was a Dec. 1, 2013, derailment that killed four people, the railroad's first passenger fatalities, in the Bronx. The NTSB said the engineer had fallen asleep at the controls because he had a severe, undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
0 comments:
Post a Comment