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[h=4]7 dead, multiple injuries as train strikes SUV in N.Y.[/h]VALHALLA, N.Y. — At least 12 people were injured Tuesday after a Metro-North commuter train struck a car just north of the train station. The crash, which occurred about 6:35 p.m. near the Commerce Street
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At least six people were killed Tuesday after a Metro-North commuter train struck two cars near a train station in Valhalla, New York, according to emergency responders. VPC
Firefighters work at the scene of an accident where a train crashed into an SUV in Valhalla, N.Y. Tuesday.(Photo: Frank Becerra Jr., The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News)
VALHALLA, N.Y. — At least seven people were killed Tuesday evening after a Metro-North commuter train struck a Jeep just north of the train station, the MTA confirmed. At least 12 others were said to be injured in the crash.
Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, had said earlier the victims included the driver of the car, a woman who was outside of her vehicle when the crash occurred, and five people on board the train. But later Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino tweeted that there were at least seven people killed.
N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo as well said six people aboard the train were killed, making this crash the railroad's deadliest.
"You have seven people who started out today to go about their business and aren't going to be making it home tonight," the governor said Tuesday night at the crash site in Valhalla, 20 miles north of New York City.
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Governor Andrew Cuomo and MTA chairman & CEO Thomas Prendergast hold a press confernce about the Metro-North train crash in Vallahlla. Matt Spillane
It was unclear how fast the train was going, but the maximum would be 60 mph, a railroad official said.
Witnesses said they saw the flames shooting from where the crash occurred, in a wooded area near a cemetery.
The fiery scene began to unfold about 6:30 p.m. ET when the Harlem Line train out of Grand Central Terminal struck the black Jeep Cherokee at the narrow, two-lane Commerce Street crossing, causing a fiery explosion that engulfed both the SUV and the train.
"The gates came down on top of the vehicle, which was stopped on the tracks," he said in a statement. "The driver got out to look at the rear of the car, then she got back in and drove forward and was stuck."
Donovan said the force from the impact pushed the Cherokee about 10 train car lengths north of the crossing.
Astorino reported on Twitter that the crash sent the electrified third rail into the first train car. "Pray for the deceased," he wrote.
The train involved was a 5:44 p.m. train from Grand Central Terminal, due in Southeast at 7:08 p.m.
Numerous police and fire departments responded to what was quickly labeled a "mass-casualty" incident.
Donovan said the train had been expected to make its first stop at Chappaqua.
According to the MTA website, Metro-North Railroad is second-largest commuter railroad in the USA. Its main lines — the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven — run northward out of Grand Central Terminal into suburban New York and Connecticut. The Metro-North carries on average about 286,000 passengers each weekday over its 795 miles of track, according to MTA.
About 400 passengers on the train who were unharmed were evacuated through the rear train car. "Walking wounded" were being taken to The Cliffs at Valhalla, a rock-climbing gym near the scene, Sgt. Michael McGuinn of the Mount Pleasant, N.Y., police department.
Shortly before 9 p.m. ET, a mix of gym patrons and train passengers were at the club. Patrons could not leave because roads around the facility were closed off.
The injured had already been taken to ambulances and the passengers were waiting for MTA buses to help them continue their commutes, said Ryan Cottrell, the gym's assistant director. The mood inside was quiet, he said.
"We have heat food and all that good stuff, so everyone's fine," Cottrell said.
A large emergency response team had already been in the area responding to a head-on crash on the Taconic State Parkway.
Alex Bernier, 26, of Mahopac, was aboard the train when the crash occurred and said he felt the jolt as the train came to an extremely abrupt stop.
"My first thought was that it was a signal error. There was a bit of confusion on the train. We all kind of shuffled to the back," he said. "People just started opening windows (to get out)."
Bernier said the conductor made an announcement moments later, informing the passengers that a car had been struck.
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Patterson resident Peter Pagan was a passenger on the Metro-North train involved in a fatal crash in Valhalla. He describes what he experienced. (Video by Seth Harrison/The Journal News)
Frank Andrade, 43, South Salem, a plumbing fire protection engineer, was returning home evening on the 6:10 p.m. train out of Grand Central when the trip began to slow near White Plains.
"They said there was an incident with a train and car at Commerce and that we would stay here for a while," he said.
Andrade said passengers aboard the 6:10 p.m. were initially irritated, but that the general attitude changed once word of the crash hit social media.
"That's when the people around me grew more concerned about what happened," he said. "It was a little bit of mass chaos in White Plains."
Westchester County Police Commissioner George Longworth said he expected the National Transportation Safety Board will have investigators at the scene shortly. The NTSB said on Twitter that it was monitoring the situation closely.
"It's a horrible tragedy. We've committed all of our resources to correcting any problems there might have been and to find out why this happened," he said. But he cautioned that it was way too preliminary to start making judgment calls about the cause.
Valhalla crash<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Journal News)
All railroad grade crossings have gate arms that are designed to lift automatically if they strike something like a car on 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.
Officials didn't comment on whether the gates were working properly.
About five hours before the crash, security consultant Peter Moreno heard on the police scanner that the railroad crossing gates at Virginia Road in North White Plains were not working properly. He tweeted the information "to let people know to be careful."
The crossing, he said, is about one mile south of Commerce Street.
"I don't know that there's a connection," Moreno told The Journal News. "I do know that the police were dispatched earlier today for a problems with the gates. I have no way of knowing if those problems were founded or if, in fact, they were connected. I find it coincidental. And it's something that bears investigation at the very least."
Moreno, a Westchester resident who owns KH Security Solutions, said he hoped the two were unrelated because Metro-North has had "their share of trouble lately."
"It's just a terrible thing," said Moreno, a retired New York Police Department captain and a former volunteer with the North White Plains Fire Department. "You want to hope you're safe on the trains."
USA TODAY
NTSB: N.Y. rail line deaths, injuries were preventable
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, who has called for improved safety on Metro-North, said in a statement he had spoken to MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast, "who has assured me that a full and thorough investigation has already begun."
"At this early stage, it is premature to point any fingers of blame, but there are many important questions that must be answered in the coming days," Schumer said.
Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney said in a statement he was "simply heartbroken" by the crash.
"As MTA and NTSB looks into this horrific incident in the days to follow, we need to know how and why this happened and then take real steps to prevent another tragic collision from ever recurring," he said.
The accident comes just weeks after an electrical problem sent smoke into a District of Columbia Metro train, killing one and injuring dozens. In the Jan. 12 accident, a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority train that had just left busy commuter station L'Enfant Plaza was stuck in a tunnel as smoke filled the cars, killing a government contractor and injuring more than 80 people. The National Transportation Safety Board is looking at the cause of the malfunction.
USA TODAY
NTSB releases preliminary report on DC Metro smoke
The acting chairman of the NTSB reported in October that five suburban New York rail accidents that left six dead and 126 injured were preventable and could have been avoided if the railroad followed NTSB recommendations.
Christopher Hart's comments came as federal investigators released their conclusions on the Metro-North Railroad accidents on the railroad's tracks, including 2013's derailment in the Bronx that killed four and injured dozens.
Last March, the Federal Railroad Administration issued a stinging report on Metro-North, saying it let safety concerns slip while pushing to keep trains on time. Railroad executives pledged to make safety their top priority.
Contributing: Bruce Leshan, WUSA-TV, Washington, D.C.; Ken Valenti, Jon Bandler and Khurram Saeed, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News; Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY in New York, and The Associated Press
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