A Metro-North train derailed in the Bronx on Sunday morning
just north of Manhattan, in a “bloodbath” that killed four passengers and
injured 60 more, authorities said.
The accident happened at 7:22 a.m. about 100 feet north of
the Spuyten Duyvil station, as all seven passenger cars derailed, according to
MTA officials.
“I was asleep and I woke up when the car started rolling
several times. Then I saw the gravel coming at me, and I heard people
screaming,” said passenger Joel Zaritsky, headed into New York for a dental
convention.
“There was smoke everywhere and debris. People were thrown
to the other side of the train.”
The train wasn’t scheduled to stop at Spuyten Duyvil and the
train’s operator, 46-year-old William Rockefeller, said he hit brakes but they
didn’t work, according to law enforcement sources.
One FDNY rescuer at the scene said he couldn’t believe the
carnage in front of him.
“It was just a bloodbath,” the FDNY Bravest said. “This is
the worse accident scene I’ve ever worked. There was blood everywhere.”
Family of passengers on the derailed train are being asked
to call 311 or (212) 639-9675 for more information about their loved ones’
whereabouts.
There were at least four dead, 11 critically injured, six
seriously hurt and 46 riders with minor wounds, authorities said. The dead
included three men and one woman, according to WABC-TV.
One of the dead was buried in wreckage between cars.
“I’ve just toured the cars and it’s horrific,” said
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. “The sheer speed the train must have
been going … hopefully the injured will survive. We’re all praying for the
critically injured.”
Five NYPD cops were on board the train but only one of them,
a female officer, was injured, law enforcement sources said.
The cop suffered broke a shoulder and rib in the crash, and
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly visited her at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx.
One of the injured was a 43-year-old man, who was being
treated at St. Barnabas for a damaged spinal cord.
The terrifying crash sent passengers flying.
“I was just holding on, I was scared,” said passenger Eddie
Russell, 48, headed into town to work as a security guard at SiriusXM radio.
“And people were flying around. If you couldn’t hold on, you were flying.”
The crash happened at the foot of Spuyten Duyvil creek and
cars narrowly missed going into the water.
NYPD dive teams fished into the creek just to make sure no
victims were submerged.
“We believe, we believe, but we need to obviously recreate
this. We believe three of the four fatalities were thrown out as the train came
off the track and was twisting and turning,” FDNY Commissioner Sal Cassano
said.
Train No. 8808 originated out of Poughkeepsie, departing at
5:54 a.m., and was scheduled to arrive into Grand Central Terminal at 7:43
a.m., officials said. The cars were being pushed south by a locomotive.
Rescuers were slowed briefly by the steep incline between
the street and tracks below.
“The train flipped and there was substantial damage,” FDNY
chief of department Edward Kilduff. “The access to the area was a tremendous
challenge [to aid the injured] but we were able overcome that.”
Several passengers said the train seemed to be moving too
fast on a curve headed toward Spuyten Duyvil station.
“It would appear the train was clearly going too fast on the
curve,” City Councilman Oliver Koppell [D-Bronx] said.
“I take this train every morning and they always slow on
this curve. On first look, it appears the operator was going way too fast.”
The train was going “a lot faster” than usual as it
approached the tricky bend, passenger Frank Tatulli told Channel 7. The speed
limit coming into Spuyten Duyvil is 30 mph, the MTA said.
“The guy was going on one of the turns fast. I have no idea
why,” said Tatulli, who rides this same train into work in Manhattan every
Sunday morning. “It [the train] left them [tracks] because it went too fast.”
Gov. Cuomo rushed to the Bronx and toured the crash site.
NTSB investigators were set to take charge of the investigation.
“It’s obviously a very tragic situation,” Cuomo said.”What
we do know is four people lost their lives today in the holiday season right
after Thanksgiving. They’re in our thoughts and prayers.”
Red Cross volunteers set up a makeshift triage operation,
prepping injured passengers for ambulance rides to the hospital.
“It [the train] just started to tip and then `bang!’ ” a
50-something woman said as she was treated by the Red Cross. “I hit the seat in
front of me. The next thing, I was sitting on a window and the lights were off.
The car was on its side. Everything hurts.”
A 30-something woman, shaking under a Red Cross blanket with
an ice packet on her head, was in obvious pain when she said: “It hurts so
bad.”
“I was like a bomb went off, I don’t know,” she said,
describing the derailment.
Neighborhood resident Brendan Conley said he was jarred
awake by the loud crash.
“I thought I heard what I thought was a building
collapsing,” said Conley, 22. “I came to the window and saw people walking
across the tracks. Smoke was coming out of the second car that rolled over.
I
yelled for my mom to call the fire department. I stood there and saw 40 or 50
people come climbing out of the train on their own.”
Another neighbor, 62-year-old Mike Segell, said the train
cars coming apart.
“It sounded like an explosion and I looked and saw the cars
hitting each other,” Segell said. “The FDNY got here really fast and started
cutting the train doors and windows with grinders.”
Reginald Ragin, 45, was anxiously waited outside Jacobi
Medical Center in hopes of seeing his s sister, Sharon Martin, 42, of Newburgh,
who was on her way into Midtown where she works for the MTA.
“The nurse said they’re really busy in the back. I asked her
if she could please go in the back and check her status. She came back and said
she’s OK,” Ragin said.
“That was the most she could tell me. They won’t allow
anyone in the back. They won’t tell anyone any other information. That’s why
I’m out here right now.”
Steven Ciccone, a 29-year-old Long Island man on the train,
said he didn’t notice it going too fast before his fellow passengers were
sudden piling on him.
“It [the train] shuddered and it started to flip and other
passengers fell on top of me,” he said. “there were screams and laments from
the injured.”
A freight train hauling garbage derailed in about the same
place of Sunday’s crash in the Bronx back on July 18.
The northbound train went off rails between the Spuyten
Duyvil and Marble Hill stations.
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