Investigators headed Wednesday to the wreckage of a fiery commuter train crash, seeking clues to why an SUV was stopped on the tracks when the train came through a crossing and slammed into it, killing six people and injuring over a dozen others.
As a National Transportation Safety Board team headed from Washington to the crash site, local officials worked to identify those killed in the deadliest accident on one of the nation’s busiest commuter rail lines — one that has come under harsh scrutiny over safety after a series of accidents in recent years. Fifteen people remained hospitalized as officials said they were, for now, mystified by the ghastly crash on the Metro-North Railroad.
“It’s really inexplicable, based on the facts we have now,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on WCBS-AM radio. “Everybody wants to know exactly what happened, so that if something can be corrected, we correct it.”
Five train passengers — authorities initially said six — and the SUV’s driver were killed in Tuesday evening’s crash, in Valhalla, about 20 miles north of New York City. Authorities said the impact was so forceful the electrified third rail came up and pierced the train.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said the front part of the train was “completely charred and burned.”
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Among the accidents was a Dec. 1, 2013, derailment that killed four people, the railroad’s first passenger fatalities, in the Bronx. The NTSB said the engineer had fallen asleep at the controls because he had a severe, undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.
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.
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Associated Press writer Jim Fitzgerald contributed to this report.
