Valhalla train crash: Difference between revisions

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Valhalla train crash
The train was formed of Bombardier M7A trainsets, similar to this one
Details
Date	February 3, 2015 6:30 p.m. EST (23:30 UTC)
Location	Valhalla, New York
Coordinates	41°05′11″N 73°47′17″W / 41.08628°N 73.78804°W / 41.08628; -73.78804
Country	United States
Line	Harlem Line
Operator	Metro North Railroad
Cause	Vehicle on tracks at grade crossing
Statistics
Trains	1
Deaths	6
Injured	15 reported (7 seriously)
Damage	1 train car 1 automobile

On the evening of February 3, 2015, a commuter train on Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line struck a passenger car at a grade crossing near Valhalla, New York, United States, between the Valhalla and Mount Pleasant stations, killing six people and injuring 15 others, including seven in "very serious condition."^[1][2]

It was the deadliest passenger train crash in the United States since the 2009 Washington Metro train collision, which killed nine people and injured eighty others.^[3] It is also the deadliest crash in Metro-North's history^[2] and is only the second Metro-North train incident to result in passenger fatalities,^{[citation needed]} after the derailment 14 months earlier on the railroad's Hudson Line that killed four people.^[4] It is not the first fatal incident at that crossing, however; a similar crash there in 1984 killed the driver of the van involved.^[5]

At about 5:30 p.m., shortly before sunset on the date of the accident, a vehicle traveling south along the Taconic State Parkway north of the hamlet of Valhalla in the town of Mount Pleasant, in central Westchester County north of New York City, struck another vehicle making a turn onto Lakeview Avenue from the northbound parkway. Responding emergency services closed both lanes of the southbound Taconic and one northbound lane. Drivers heading both directions left the parkway, seeking alternate routes back to it on local surface roads.^[6]

One such route available to northbound traffic involved taking Lakeview into the large Kensico Cemetery a short distance to the west. After a grade crossing of the two electrified tracks of Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line, which provides commuter rail service over an 82-mile (132 km) route from Wassaic in northeastern Dutchess County to Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan, the next intersection that offers a chance to continue north is with Commerce Street, a lightly traveled local road. It continues northwest through the cemetery for a quarter-mile (400 m), then turns north again down a slight rise back over another grade crossing to a signalized intersection with the parkway.^[6]

The parkway was still closed after 6 p.m., when a Mercedes-Benz SUV driven by Ellen Brody, 49, of Edgemont, went north on Commerce back towards the parkway. An employee of a Chappaqua jewelry store, she was returning there after visiting a friend in Scarsdale. Behind her was a vehicle driven by Rick Hope of Yorktown Heights, deputy commissioner of public works for the nearby city of White Plains.^[2][7]

At the grade crossing, a northbound train of joined Bombardier M7A electric multiple units that approached on the western track. It had just departed the Valhalla station 13⁄4 miles (2.82 km) to the south, en route to its next scheduled stop at Hawthorne. The crossing gates descended, warning lights began flashing and bells rang. Hope says Brody's SUV was in front of the gate as it descended, but not on the tracks. Had she simply remained where she was, he speculated, the passing train would have at most struck a glancing blow, perhaps damaging only the SUV's front bumper.^[7]

The crossing gate struck the top of Brody's SUV before sliding down its rear and becoming stuck. Hope backed up to give her room to do the same. He instead saw Brody get out and walk to the rear, apparently trying to free it. "What struck me was how calm she was—she didn't seem to be panicking, or in a hurry at all, even though the gate was down," he said later. "She wasn't in a hurry at all, but she had to have known that a train was coming."^[7]

Brody looked at him, and he motioned to her to come back in his direction, although he allows that she may not have seen him due to the glare from his headlights. Brody then returned to her vehicle and, according to Hope, seemed to pause as if she was adjusting her seat belt. The train was getting closer and the situation more urgent. "“The thing’s dinging, red lights are flashing, it's going off," he said. "I just knew she was going to back up—never in my wildest dreams did I think she'd go forward."^[2]

But she did. The train, traveling at 58 miles per hour (93 km/h), struck the SUV on its passenger side. Said Hope:

There was a terrible crunching sound, and just like that, the car was gone. Disappeared. It happened instantly. There's no way she could have known what hit her.^[7]

The train operator applied the emergency brakes as soon as he saw the vehicle, said Anthony Bottalico, head of Association of Commuter Rail Employees, the union which represents Metro-North workers. "He did everything he could." Despite that, it knocked Brody's SUV a thousand feet (300 m) up the tracks, which dislodged 400 feet (120 m) of the third rail that powers the trains, breaking it into five 80-foot (24 m) segments. It went through the passenger compartment, and then into the front two cars of the train.^[2]

Brody died, as did five passengers aboard the train.^[8][9] The lead car caught fire^[8] and was eventually destroyed.^[10]

Nine passengers were taken to Westchester Medical Center, with one of them in very serious condition.^[11] Initial reports that six passengers on the train had died were later reassessed to five fatalities on the train, in addition to the driver of the SUV. The driver worked earlier that day at her job at ICD Contemporary Jewelry in Chappaqua and lived in Edgemont, New York.^[10][12] A museum curator and finance executive were among the other victims, who were all identified on February 4. There was a total of 6 deaths and 15 injuries.^[13]

A similar incident had happened at the same site between a train and a van in 1984.^[14]

As a result of the crash, Harlem Line service was suspended between Pleasantville and North White Plains,^[15][16] and the nearby Taconic State Parkway was closed.^[8]

The National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation into the accident. A go-team was dispatched to the site.^[17]

• List of level crossing accidents

• Metro North Accident in Valhalla, NY - National Transportation Safety Board image gallery