sobering...
So ... Tuesday night's railroad accident.
It was bad. Very bad. Horrific.
It involved two trains and a vehicle.There were "only" three fatalities, the driver and passengers in the vehicle. Luckily, the injuries among the train crews and train passengers were relatively minor.
The accident happened at the School Street grade crossing, about half a mile east of the Westbury railroad station. According to witnesses, the driver tried to "beat the gate", i.e., he entered the tracks while the crossing gates were down and the lights were flashing.
The vehicle was hit by an eastbound train that had just left the Westbury station. The train t-boned the vehicle and pushed it inot the path of an oncoming westbound train.
The westbound train, headed to NYC, was not scheduled to stop at Westbury, so it was traveling at full speed.
The westbound train hit the vehicle full force. The vehicle became wedged between the two trains, and burst into flames. the vehicle's occupants all died at the scene. First responders were unable to determine if the vehicle was a car or a truck...
The westbound train continued to travel half a mile from the grade crossing to the station, where it derailed and slammed into the concrete platform on the north side of the station.
Railroad crews worked throughout the night to clear the eastbound tracks. Limited service was restored in time for Wednesday morning's rush hour, with westbound trains headed to the city traveled through Westbury at a very slow pace on the eastbound tracks.
I had a window seat Wednesday morning, so when we passed through Westbury I had a view of the train that had been in the accident, still sitting on the tracks.
It felt like we were riding though a graveyard.
I saw the damage to the train. I saw the damage to the platform.
Huge chunks of the concrete platform were inside the first car of the train.
Photo from Newsday showing some of the damage to the station platform -- the photo doesn't show the worst of it, either:
This view is from the NY Daily News:
I want to say something profound right now, about life and death and what matters, bu tthe words won't come.
It was bad. Very bad. Horrific.
It involved two trains and a vehicle.There were "only" three fatalities, the driver and passengers in the vehicle. Luckily, the injuries among the train crews and train passengers were relatively minor.
The accident happened at the School Street grade crossing, about half a mile east of the Westbury railroad station. According to witnesses, the driver tried to "beat the gate", i.e., he entered the tracks while the crossing gates were down and the lights were flashing.
The vehicle was hit by an eastbound train that had just left the Westbury station. The train t-boned the vehicle and pushed it inot the path of an oncoming westbound train.
The westbound train, headed to NYC, was not scheduled to stop at Westbury, so it was traveling at full speed.
The westbound train hit the vehicle full force. The vehicle became wedged between the two trains, and burst into flames. the vehicle's occupants all died at the scene. First responders were unable to determine if the vehicle was a car or a truck...
The westbound train continued to travel half a mile from the grade crossing to the station, where it derailed and slammed into the concrete platform on the north side of the station.
Railroad crews worked throughout the night to clear the eastbound tracks. Limited service was restored in time for Wednesday morning's rush hour, with westbound trains headed to the city traveled through Westbury at a very slow pace on the eastbound tracks.
I had a window seat Wednesday morning, so when we passed through Westbury I had a view of the train that had been in the accident, still sitting on the tracks.
It felt like we were riding though a graveyard.
I saw the damage to the train. I saw the damage to the platform.
Huge chunks of the concrete platform were inside the first car of the train.
Photo from Newsday showing some of the damage to the station platform -- the photo doesn't show the worst of it, either:
This view is from the NY Daily News:
I want to say something profound right now, about life and death and what matters, bu tthe words won't come.
I can just imagine the driver thinking they could beat the train, and the passengers yelling at the driver not to do it. You'd think people would just stop, but I guess they were in a hurry...
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard about this accident, I wondered if you would end up seeing the aftermath. Sadly, you did. I don't know why people like to look at wreckage of accidents. You don't mess with trains. People never learn. When I ride the Auto Train I sometimes wonder what would happen if....we slow down in cities but we also go through some very rural areas. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
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