Six Dead After New York Train Slams Into SUV; Survivors Describe 'Horror'
At least six people are dead and another 15 are injured after a New York commuter train carrying close to 650 people hit an SUV in afternoon rush hour on Tuesday. The incident is believed to be the deadliest in Metro-North rail system's history.
While initial reports said that seven people in total were killed, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo revised that number down to six on Wednesday morning.
"The number of deceased in the train itself dropped from six to five, so that was actually good news," Cumo told CBS. "The driver also is deceased."
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The dead include the car's driver and five of the passengers on board the train.
Of the 15 others injured, seven are in a serious condition. Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said that the train was "completely charred and burned."
"I am amazed anyone got off that train alive," Astorino said. "It must have been pure panic, with the flames, the third rail and the smoke."
Officials at the scene said that the SUV, a Jeep Cherokee, was on the train tracks when it was struck around 6:30 p.m. local time. A witness, Richard Hope, said that he was in his car behind the Jeep when a female driver got inside the vehicle seemingly to drive away, but moved forward into the path of the train.
"I'm signaling and yelling for her to back up and reverse, and I'm thinking the clock is ticking here. But she gets back in her car and starts driving forward over the tracks," Hope explained, according to the New York Post.
"It looks like where she stopped she did not want to go on the tracks but the proximity of the gate to her car, you know, it was dark — maybe she didn't know she was in front of the gate," he said.
Another one of the survivors, passenger Devon Champagne, added: "I was horrified — the crash and the flames. I thought I was going to die for a minute. It was the scariest moment of my life."
The front of the train sustained the most damage, added passenger Jamie Wallace.
"They were basically trapped in there with the fire," Wallace said of the other passengers. "A few of us in my car tried to break the glass so we could get through, but to no avail."
NY state officials have been mourning the victims. Sen. Charles Schumer 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."
Metro-North has been operating since 1983, and serves close to 280,000 passengers a day between New York and Connecticut, Fox News noted. The first time passenger fatalities were reported was in a fatal accident in December 2013, when a derailment caused the deaths of four people.
