On Tuesday, February 3, 2015, a croweded Metro-North train passing through Westchester County during rush hour slammed into an SUV that was on the tracks at a crossing. The crash created an explosion, killing seven people and injuring a dozen. The crash is deemed the deadliest crash in Metro-North’s history.
Hundreds of passengers were evacuated from the train. Service was suspended on the Harlem line on Tuesday night while firefighters responded to the smoking first car.
The train slammed into a black Jeep Cherokee, in the crossing at Commerce Street in Valhalla, N.Y. around 6:30pm on Tuesday. The driver and six people on the train were killed. The crossing gates were down when the Jeep was on the tracks. The train pushed the SUV about 400 feet and the explosion caused the third rail of the track to go through the front train car.
Ten people were seriously injured and two others had non-life threatening injuries. They were taken to local hospitals. The engineer of the train was injured.
Metro-North has been under intense scrutiny after a series of crashes, including the derailment of December 2013.
According to preliminary information, the gates at the crossingcame down on top of the SUV, which had stopped on the tracks. The driver got out of the vehicle to look at the rear of the car, then got back in and drove forward. Then the vehicle was struck by the train. The crash appears to be the driver’s fault, not the conductors.
A former chairman of the safety board, James E. Hall said he would expect investigators to look into the rail cars and the difficulty passengers might have had evacuating.
If you have lost a loved one in this deady crash, or if you or a loved one has been seriously injured as a result of this crash, contact us immediately.
Our hearts and prayers go out to those who were killed and injured in the Metro-North crash on February 3rd.
Read more about the crash on the New York Times wesbite.