Wednesday, February 4, 2015

5:25 PM

By Unknown

In: , , ,

No comments

Investigation Underway in Metro-North Train Crash - New York Times




A Metro-North commuter train slammed into an S.U.V. on the tracks Tuesday evening, killing the driver and several train passengers. Christopher Gregory for The New York Times




When a crowded commuter train slammed into a car on the tracks on Tuesday night, it dislodged the electrified third rail, which, combined with gasoline from the vehicle, created a deadly inferno, federal investigators said at a news conference Wednesday evening.


“The entire interior of the first rail car was burned out,” said Robert L. Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.


The result was the most deadly accident in the history of the Metro-North Railroad, with six people killed and more than a dozen injured after the collision in Valhalla, in Westchester County.


Even as investigators worked to understand why a car became stranded on the tracks, Mr. Sumwalt offered some explanation for why the accident was so deadly.


He said the train plowed the car 1,000 feet down the tracks and, as it went along, tore up 400 feet of electrified rail.



That rail, he said, first penetrated the car “behind and below the driver’s seat” and exited the car by the right rear tire. It then pierced the train, breaking up in 80-foot segments. At least one of those segments penetrated the second rail car.



Graphic



The commuter train struck a vehicle on the tracks in Valhalla, N.Y.




OPEN Graphic



But he said many questions remained unanswered. Specifically, he said, in these types of accidents, train passengers are rarely killed.


“Usually it is not endangering the occupants of the train,” he said. “We intend to find out what makes this accident different.”


Mr. Sumwalt said it also remained unclear why the S.U.V. was on the tracks, noting that investigators would continue to look into whether any warning signals malfunctioned.


The driver of the vehicle was identified as Ellen Brody, a 49-year-old mother of three children who lived in Greenburgh.


On Tuesday, she left the store she worked at in Chappaqua, ICD Contemporary Jewelry, around 6 p.m. She was on her way to Scarsdale to meet a friend, according to co-workers.


When she did not return home, one of Ms. Brody’s daughters called a colleague of hers asking where she might be. At 11 p.m. the police informed her husband that she had been killed in the crash.


“It’s been a very difficult time,” said Virginia Shasha, a colleague who spent the night with the family. “It’s their mother. Their world has shattered.”


Rick Hope, who was in the car directly behind Ms. Brody’s Mercedes S.U.V., said her car was stopped on the road just before the tracks but in front of the crossing arm. He watched as the red lights began to flash, warning bells rang and the crossing arm came down on the back of her car.


“As soon as I see the gate go down, I back up,” Mr. Hope said outside his Yorktown Heights home on Wednesday evening. “I say, ‘She’s going to back up as soon as she sees what’s going on.'”


But instead, Ms. Brody calmly got out of her car. She walked around the back, pushed up against the guardrail, and found it wedged firmly in place.


Mr. Hope said he began to panic, knowing a train would plow through in seconds. He said he motioned with his hands at Ms. Brody to come toward him. Knowing his headlights were on, possibly blocking her from seeing him, he backed his car up more, thinking she might copy his behavior.


For a split second, he said, she looked at him. He thought she might walk away from the car.


“She looks at me, that’s the disturbing part,” he said. “I was waiting for her to say, ‘What do I do?’ That’s easy — come here!”


Instead she walked back to the driver’s seat and climbed in. There was a pause, as if she were buckling her seat belt.




Play Video|1:23

Passenger Describes Metro-North Crash



Passenger Describes Metro-North Crash



Steven Lichtenthal, of Bedford Hills, N.Y., rode in the back of a middle car involved in the fatal Metro-North crash on Tuesday. He described how the accident unfolded.


Video by Stephen Farrell on February 4, 2015. Photo by Richard Perry/The New York Times.

“The thing’s dinging, red lights are flashing, it’s going off,” Mr. Hope said. “I just remember going, ‘Hurry up.’ I just knew she was going to back up — never in my wildest dreams did I think she’d go forward.”


She drove forward.


“It was just instantaneous,” he said. “She was gone.”


Even as officials revised the number of people killed on Wednesday morning to six from seven, the families of those involved had to deal with an agonizing wait for information because many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.


The five train passengers who died were all men, according to a county official.


One of the people injured remained in critical condition and one was in serious condition, and the rest were either stable or had been released from the hospital, officials at the Westchester County Medical Center told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon.


The survivors’ injuries included burns, smoke inhalation, fractures, lacerations, contusions and some crush injuries.


As the day went on, friends, relatives and co-workers began to confirm that their loved ones were presumed dead.


One victim was Walter Liedtke, the curator of European paintings for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In an email, the museum said it was still awaiting official confirmation.


“But it appears as though he was among the victims in the first car,” the director of the museum, Thomas P. Campbell, wrote to the staff. “We are all shocked by this news and have his entire family, particularly his wife Nancy, in our thoughts.”


Another victim was identified as Eric Vandercar, 53, who was on his way home to Bedford Hills, N.Y., at the time of the crash, according to a statement released by the company where he worked, Mesirow Financial.


“Eric was not only a pillar in our industry, he was a great partner and friend to many,” the statement said. “Our entire Mesirow family is hurting and our deepest sympathies are extended to his wife, Jill, and their family.”


Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, appearing on several morning television interviews, said that there was significant traffic near the railroad crossing where the accident happened and that it did not seem that Ms. Brody, who was in her Mercedes S.U.V., was trying to beat the train at the crossing at Commerce Street in Valhalla.


Instead, he said, it was more likely that she was somehow confused.




Play Video|1:17

Witness Videos of Metro-North Crash



Witness Videos of Metro-North Crash



Passengers aboard the train and bystanders captured the chaotic scene unfolding after a Metro-North train crashed into a sport-utility vehicle on Tuesday, killing six people.


February 4, 2015. Photo by http://ift.tt/1uaEyuo.

In the moments after the crash, witnesses described a horrifying scene in the first car of the train, which quickly became filled with smoke and flames.


“People started falling over each other,” said one witness, Chris Gross, appearing on “Good Morning America’’ on ABC. He was tossed into the aisle and saw flames, and he heard a man in front of him screaming. He described how even injured passengers struggled to help others get out of the burning car.


In a reflection of the confusion following the crash, and the extent of the damage to both the train and the car, information about the number of people killed, the make of the car involved in the accident and the exact location of the crash has changed.


Anthony Bottalico, general chairman of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, a Metro-North union, said the train’s operator applied emergency brakes as soon as he saw something on the tracks.


“He did everything he was supposed to do,” Mr. Bottalico said.


The operator, Mr. Bottalico added, had evacuated several passengers before being overcome by smoke inhalation.


“He hung in there as long as he could,” Mr. Bottalico said. The operator remains hospitalized, he said.


The operator had been on the job nine months as a locomotive engineer, he said, and has been with the railroad for three years.


On Wednesday morning, the smell of smoke still filled the air as investigators combed over the wreckage.


Metro-North has been under intense scrutiny after a series of crashes that killed six people in less than a year, including a derailment in 2013 on the Hudson line that left four commuters dead in the Bronx. A federal report released last year was highly critical of the railroad.


A team from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the crash site on Wednesday and took over the investigation.


Speaking to reporters, Robert L. Sumwalt, a member of the board, said a full investigation would take about a year, though if the safety board’s findings warranted “immediate attention,” it could issue an urgent safety recommendation far more quickly.


In particular, investigators will focus on the crossing arms, rail traffic signals and highway signals; each device has a recorder on it, Mr. Sumwalt said. The recorders have been secured and will be studied by experts, he added.


The board’s on-scene investigation should take five to seven days, Mr. Sumwalt said.


But a Metro-North official said some service on the Harlem line, which runs between Grand Central Terminal and Wassaic, N.Y., in Dutchess County, was expected to be restored sooner, possibly as early as Thursday.



Reporting was contributed by Stephen Farrell, Lisa W. Foderaro, Winnie Hu, Andy Newman, William K. Rashbaum, Elena Schneider, Nate Schweber and John Surico.










Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1BVIsF9

0 comments:

Post a Comment