NY commuter train hits car on tracks killing 6, 15 injured
Print Edition
SIX people were killed and a dozen injured when a crowded New York commuter train struck a car stalled on the tracks near suburban White Plains in Valhalla during rush hour on Tuesday evening, in what officials said was the railroad’s deadliest accident.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told CBS News yesterday that a new review found that five people had died on the train, not the six previously reported, when the train was hit during the evening rush hour. The driver of the Jeep Cherokee that the train struck while it was stuck on the tracks also died.
“The number of deceased in the train itself dropped from six to five, so that was actually good news,” Cuomo said on “CBS This Morning.”
Some 15 people were injured with seven in very serious condition, he added.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the crash was the deadliest accident for Metro-North, the second largest commuter railroad in the United States.
The crash also meant that thousands of commuters faced a snarled journey to work yesterday morning.
MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said roughly 45,000 riders take the Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem Line on an average weekday, about 14,000 of whom board north of where the crash occurred and would be directly affected.
Parts of the line were to stay closed yesterday, according to the MTA, which was arranging shuttle buses to fill the gap.
The third rail, which carries 750 volts of direct current, tore through the floor of the first car of the train, charring the carriage and sending billows of smoke into the air. Damage to the other seven cars was minimal.
Hundreds of passengers from the eight-car train were taken to a rock-climbing gym for shelter, authorities said.
Media reports said the driver of the car got out briefly to try to push it off the tracks, then got back in before it was hit by the train. “It appears that the gasoline tank on the car burst and that started the fire, consumed the car and consumed the ... first car of the first train,” Cuomo said. “So people had to deal with both the collision and the fire.”
Some 650 passengers regularly take the train, which carries commuters through affluent New York City suburbs such as Westchester County, one of the richest in the US.
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