Seven dead in New york Crash
Seven killed in New York Crash
At least seven people have been killed and more than a dozen injured after a
commuter train hit a car on the outskirts of New York.
The crash took place at a level crossing in Valhalla, Westchester County, just
north of New York City, at around 6.30 pm – 45 minutes after the Metro-North
train left Grand Central Station.
The train, carrying more than 700 people, burst into flames with the fire
gutting the lead carriage
Five of the dead are understood to be passengers on the train.
The other confirmed fatality was the female driver of a black Jeep Cherokee.
According to initial reports the car was trapped on the track when the gates
came down.
Aaron Donovan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the car was pushed around 10 train lengths by the impact of the collision.
Neil Rader was sitting in the middle-back of the train when he felt a "small jolt," he told NBC.
"It felt not even like a short stop, and then the train just completely stopped," he said.
Passengers who were trapped on the train, which remained on the track, smashed glass on the doors to get to safety.
"I've never seen anything like it."
A firefighter walks past the burning wreckage of the commuter train (AP)
Justin Kaback, 26, a passenger in the third train car, said he was doing his daily commute home when the train felt like it hit a bump, he told The Wall Street Journal.
But then people began entering his car from the front of the train, reporting gas smells.
"I started moving," Kaback said. "Nobody wanted to yell out, 'The train's on fire' because there would have been a panic."
Paul DeLaurentis, a CBS radio employee, said in an interview with 1010 WINS radio station that he was on the train, in the third or fourth car.
"We didn't feel the impact at all. There was nothing that would make you turn your head or sit up and say what was that," DeLaurentis said.
Emergency services on the scene (AP)
But within a few minutes people started coming into his car from the front carriages and people started smashing emergency windows and smoke started pouring in, he said.
"The smoke was coming both from the inside and from the outside."
The crash comes 14 months after another major commuter train crash in New York, when four people were killed and 60 people injured when a Metro-North train came off the tracks in the Bronx.
Aaron Donovan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said the car was pushed around 10 train lengths by the impact of the collision.
Neil Rader was sitting in the middle-back of the train when he felt a "small jolt," he told NBC.
"It felt not even like a short stop, and then the train just completely stopped," he said.
Passengers who were trapped on the train, which remained on the track, smashed glass on the doors to get to safety.
"I've never seen anything like it."
A firefighter walks past the burning wreckage of the commuter train (AP)
Justin Kaback, 26, a passenger in the third train car, said he was doing his daily commute home when the train felt like it hit a bump, he told The Wall Street Journal.
But then people began entering his car from the front of the train, reporting gas smells.
"I started moving," Kaback said. "Nobody wanted to yell out, 'The train's on fire' because there would have been a panic."
Paul DeLaurentis, a CBS radio employee, said in an interview with 1010 WINS radio station that he was on the train, in the third or fourth car.
"We didn't feel the impact at all. There was nothing that would make you turn your head or sit up and say what was that," DeLaurentis said.
Emergency services on the scene (AP)
But within a few minutes people started coming into his car from the front carriages and people started smashing emergency windows and smoke started pouring in, he said.
"The smoke was coming both from the inside and from the outside."
The crash comes 14 months after another major commuter train crash in New York, when four people were killed and 60 people injured when a Metro-North train came off the tracks in the Bronx.
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