‘No warning, no nothing ... the train came to a screeching halt, flames ensued. The flames were about a foot from my head,’ recalls Chris Gross, who says a fellow passenger helped him escape through an emergency exit before he in turned aided a few others. He was aboard Tuesday’s 5:44 p.m. commuter train out of Grand Central Terminal. Six died after it struck an SUV.
BY ERIK BADIA , LARRY MCSHANE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, February 4, 2015, 11:53 AM
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The rush hour train ride was typically crowded and uneventful, right up until the second commuter Chris Gross was sent sailing through the air.
"I felt this big 'Bang, boom,' a jolt, and then I was right out of my seat," recalled Gross, 24, on the Wednesday morning after barely surviving the fiery Metro-North train wreck.
"No warning, no nothing ... the train came to a screeching halt, flames ensued. The flames were about a foot from my head."
The production assistant on television show "Extra" described a terrifying scene of death and destruction in the first car of the 5:44 p.m. train Tuesday out of Grand Central Terminal. Six died in the accident.
I turned around, and someone had lost their foot. That’s an image I will never forget.
As a fireball tore through the car, commuters were haphazardly piled on top of one another like pickup sticks. Gross freed himself from beneath several riders, only to see the horrors that now surrounded him.
"I did see a compound fracture of someone's leg — the lower half was split wide open," he said. "I turned around, and someone had lost their foot. That's an image I will never forget."
Two other riders near the very front of the train were "brutally injured," said the still-shaken Gross.
Gross — who was only aboard the train because he stopped to buy sneakers, missing the 5:27 p.m. — said a quick-thinking commuter helped him escape through the emergency exit door as the car filled with smoke and flames.
"He busted open the emergency exit, pulled the latch, and him and myself helped pull the door open," he recounted after a sleepless night. "We hopped out, and helped a few people out.
"I pulled three people out and then I called 911. I was just trying to help those who could walk."
ADREES LATIF/REUTERSMetropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials inspect the burned out train car. Commuter Chris Gross recalls that riders stuck inside the burning car were screaming for a fire extinguisher and for someone to call 911.
Riders stuck inside the burning car were screaming for a fire extinguisher and for someone to call 911. The former Boy Scout says everything happened in a matter of mere seconds.
Gross, who escaped the scene on foot, said he was watching a movie on his laptop near the front of the train's first car when all hell broke loose.
"I'm incredibly lucky," he said. "I thank God that I have angels looking out for me right now. I'm lucky that I'm still alive, walking and talking."
