Driver and engineer in Metro-North crash saw horror ahead but it was too late to avert doom
400-foot section of electrified third rail, broken into five 80-foot pieces, gashed through SUV driven by Ellen Brody, 49. Six people, including Brody, died in the fiery Valhalla wreck
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Wednesday, February 4, 2015, 8:05 AM
Updated: Thursday, February 5, 2015, 12:11 AM
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FACEBOOKEllen Brody was identified as the driver of the SUV that was struck by the train Tuesday night.
The woman inside the Mercedes SUV saw the train barreling down on her at 60 mph. The engineer spotted her, too, immediately blaring the horn and slamming on the brakes.
It was already too late.
The suburban mom trapped on the Metro-North tracks near the Valhalla station was one of six people killed in a gruesome, fiery wreck that decapitated one commuter despite the engineer’s desperate efforts to stop the train.
A National Transportation Safety Board team was on the ground Wednesday at the charred accident site, where hundreds of commuters escaped the burning train one night before.
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“There are two big questions here: Why was the car on the train tracks?” asked NTSB Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt. “And what caused this accident to be fatal for occupants of the train?”
A 400-foot section of the electrified third rail, broken into five 80-foot pieces, gashed through the Mercedes-Benz SUV driven by Ellen Brody before piercing the floor of the first car of the train.
A source indicated some of the dead passengers were sliced when the rail tore through the floor “like it was cutting through butter. . . . They didn’t have a chance to even try and escape.”
COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ARTWalter Liedtke was killed in the crash.
One chunk of rail barely missed the engineer as it ripped through his compartment in the front of the train, a source added.
“I am amazed that anyone got off that train alive,” said Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino. “It must have been pure panic, with the flames, the third rail and the smoke.”
LINKEDINEric Vandercar was a 53-year-old married father of two and major Grateful Dead fan who worked for Mesirow Financial in Manhattan.
The Mercedes was pushed 1,000 screeching feet down the tracks — more than the length of three football fields — before coming to its explosive halt, authorities said.
The fireball that charred the inside of the train’s first car, where the five riders were killed, was apparently ignited by a gas tank explosion in the SUV. One piece of the shattered third rail extended all the way into the train’s second car.
Robert Dirks. Dirks was killed on February 3, 2015 when the Metro-North train he was a passenger on hit an SUV at a railroad crossing in Valhalla, New York.
Brody, 49, a married mother of three, was headed home from work at a Chappaqua jewelry design shop Tuesday when she died in the fiery 6:30 p.m. crash at the Westchester railroad crossing.
The rear of the Edgemont woman’s car was first struck by a gate at the intersection with the Metro-North tracks, and she casually stepped outside to check for damage, a source said.
At that point, her car — though on the wrong side of the gate — was not initially in the path of the oncoming train. But the Mercedes was soon caught in the headlights.
“She got back in her car and for whatever reason went forward a little bit,” the source said. “The train would have missed her by a good 6 or 7 feet.”
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Neither Brody nor the train’s engineer was able to do anything in the seconds before impact to stop the crash. The five dead commuters were all riding in the same area inside the train’s quiet car.
Despite the horrific outcome, engineer Steven Smalls,32, was hailed for his heroism in the deadly crash.
Smalls, who has been with Metro-North three years, is an Air Force veteran. He escaped from the burning wreckage with his life — and told first responders that he helped four or five passengers from the train.
But he first slammed the train into emergency mode, fully engaging its brakes in an effort to stop the deadliest crash in Metro-North’s 32-year history.
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RICHARD HARBUS FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
A plume of smoke rises as front of the Metro-North train burns late Tuesday (left). Firefighers work on the scene (right) after the fiery crash caused by an SUV trying to cross the tracks.
“He followed his training to a T,” one source told the Daily News. “A 20-year veteran couldn’t have done it better. He doesn’t view himself as a hero. He’s devastated by the loss of lives and injuries.”
Smalls, bruised and suffering from smoke inhalation, was treated at Westchester Medical Center and released.
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Valhalla Fire Chief Roger King was just as impressed by the engineer’s gutsy effort.
“He saw the car well ahead of the crossing and immediately locked the brakes,” King said. “But a train going 60 mph doesn’t stop on a dime. In an instant, he was seeing flames and smoke filling the train car.”
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There was a moment of silence Wednesday afternoon on the floor of the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester).
Brody and her husband, Alan, a South African native, were longtime residents of Edgemont. The couple, described as a prominent and active local family, had three daughters.
THEODORE PARISIENNE/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWSWestchester County Executive Rob Astorino said he was ‘amazed that anyone got off that train alive ... ‘It must have been pure panic, with the flames, the third rail and the smoke.’
The SUV driver was one of five victims identified after all six victims were burned almost beyond recognition. Passengers Robert Dirks, 36, of Chappaqua; Eric Vandercar, 53, of Bedford Hills; Joseph Nadol, 42, of Ossining; Aditya Tomar, 41, of Danbury, Ct., and Walter Liedtke, 69, of Bedford Hills, a curator with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, were also killed, according to family, friends and published reports.
The wreck occurred about 45 minutes after the northbound train left Grand Central Terminal at 5:44 p.m., with an estimated 650 people aboard.
JOE MARINOA scene from the sky of the tragic crash.
Passengers said it was an uneventful trip home until the crunching steel sent riders careening around the train.
There was some good news after the ghastly wreck that illuminated the winter sky, with bleeding passengers sitting in snowbanks as first responders arrived at the scene.
Only one of the 15 injured passengers remained in critical condition Wednesday, with a half-dozen now listed as good or fair — and four victims released from hospitals.
Cuomo said on “CBS This Morning” it was too soon to start pointing fingers.
“Sometimes there are just accidents,” he said. “Sometimes people just get themselves in bad situations. So I think it’s too soon to say what’s to blame or who’s to blame.”
The NTSB team will stay on the scene for five to seven days, but a full investigation will take about a year.
Team members had already recovered several key recording devices that will provide them with the train speed and other important details — including any possible malfunction of the gate.
Investigators were also hopeful that video evidence would turn up, giving them a real-time view of what went wrong at the crossing.
The vast majority of passengers fled the burning train before authorities arrived — some steered to wait inside a nearby gym, and others sent to stand near a cemetery.
The previous worst Metro-North wreck killed four passengers in December 2013 when a commuter train jumped the track while speeding at nearly three times the 30-mph limit in the Bronx.
