On February 3, a collision between a commuter train and an SUV killed six people in Valhalla, a New York City suburb.
According to witnesses, the driver of the Mercedes SUV went onto the crossing and then the gates lowered and hit the rear part of the SUV. She got out of the vehicle and checked the damage, then got back in and drove forward and was hit by the train.
An estimated 650 passengers were aboard the MetroNorth train at the time of the accident, with 20 of them in the first car.
The train crashed into the SUV and the impact set off an explosion which sent pieces of the rail track through the passenger area of the train and a subsequent fire burned out the first car of the train. The woman driving the SUV, and five men on the train were killed.
Those who died were Ellen Brody, the SUV driver, Walter Liedtke, a curator of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joseph Nadol, aged 42, a JP Morgan Chase executive, Aditya Tomar, age 41, who worked in asset management at JP Morgan, and 36 year old Robert Dirks, a research scientist at D.E. Shaw Research in Manhattan. All six suffered blunt-force injuries and burns.
Federal investigators are now saying that the damages have cost the railroad around $3.7 million and an initial report from the investigation is asking the Federal Railroad Administration and Metro North to think of how rail crossings can be made safer.
The White Plains accident attorneys of Denlea & Carton LLP. help victims of catastrophic injuries recover maximum compensation so that they can return to the highest quality of life possible. Please call us right away at (914) 331-0100 or contact us online today.