A crowded Metro-North Railroad train passing through Westchester County at the height of the evening rush on Tuesday slammed into a sport-utility vehicle on the tracks at a crossing, creating a fiery crash and explosion that killed seven people, injured a dozen and forced the evacuation of hundreds.
On Wednesday, federal transportation safety officials were prepared to travel to New York to investigate the crash, the deadliest in Metro-North’s history.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, speaking on Wednesday morning, said that it remained “hard to say why the car is on the tracks.”
“It is too early to say if there is anything to learn here,” he said. “Sometimes there are just accidents.”
Passengers were temporarily stranded after evacuating the train, as its front car continued to release billowing smoke into the cold night air. Service was halted on the Harlem line on Tuesday night as firefighters responded to the smoking car and officials said they were investigating what had led to the crash.
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In a statement, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York said, “Our hearts go out to those lost, we pray for those injured and our hats are tipped to the brave first responders who came to the scene of this tragic crash so quickly.”
Mr. Schumer, who has been critical of safety measures at the railroad, added, “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.”
Representative Sean Patrick Maloney issued a statement: “As M.T.A. and N.T.S.B. look 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.”
James E. Hall, a former chairman of the safety board, said he expected investigators to consider whether gasoline escaping from the Jeep had set the train car on fire. He said it was unusual for a passenger train to burst into flames in a crash, but he added that “anytime you have friction in an accident there’s a possibility of flammability.”
Mr. Hall said he would expect investigators to look into the rail cars and the difficulty passengers might have had evacuating. He said the safety board had investigated several train accidents in the 1990s “where evacuation was a problem.”
Reporting was contributed by Edna Ishayik, Patrick McGeehan, Nate Schweber and John Surico.
