Seven 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 during rush hour on Tuesday evening, in what officials said was the railroad’s deadliest accident.
Six people on the train died, as well as the driver of a Jeep Cherokee that got stuck on the tracks and was hit at about 6:30pm, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a news conference.
“This is a truly ugly and brutal sight,” he told reporters after visiting the scene in Valhalla. “The third rail of the track came up from the explosion and went right through the [rail] car; it’s a devastatingly ugly situation.”
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.
“It’s actually amazing that not more people were hurt on that train,” Cuomo said.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino told reporters 12 people were injured, 10 of them seriously. Eleven of the injured were taken to Westchester Medical Center, he added.
Passengers described frightening scenes as the train was evacuated.
“The smoke was orange coming off the train, it was still on fire at that point. The front car was billowing heavy smoke out of the windows and doors,” said Jared Woodard, an employee of BGC Financial in New York, who was on the train traveling home to Chappaqua.
Hundreds of passengers from the eight-car train were taken to a rock-climbing gym for shelter, authorities said. The average number of passengers on the train is 650 on a line that carries commuters through affluent New York City suburbs such as Westchester County, one of the richest in the US.
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.
Officials did not say why the car was stalled on the tracks.
The train left Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan at 5:44pm and was headed north to Wassaic in southeast New York state.
Parts of the train line were to remain closed yesterday, said the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which was arranging for shuttle buses to fill the gap and warned of crowds and delays for thousands of commuters.
The Harlem Line is part of the Metro-North Railroad commuter rail service, which runs five lines.
Tuesday’s crash was the latest in a string of accidents involving Metro-North trains in recent years, which have drawn strong criticism.
The US National Transportation Safety Board released a report late last year that identified common safety issues with the railroad following probes of five accidents that left six people dead and another 126 injured between May 2013 and March last year.
The safety board said it was sending investigators to the scene of Tuesday’s crash.
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