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L.I.R.R. Derailment in Brooklyn Injures More Than 100 L.I.R.R. Crash in Brooklyn Injures More Than 100
(about 5 hours later)
A Long Island Rail Road train crashed at the busiest transportation hub in Brooklyn during the morning rush on Wednesday, injuring more than 100 people and disrupting the commute for thousands more, the authorities said. Every workday for the past eight years, Audrey Foster has taken the same Long Island Rail Road train from her home on Long Island to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, a busy hub serving suburban and New York City commuters.
Officials said the train rammed into a bumping block as it pulled into the Atlantic Terminal station in Downtown Brooklyn around 8 a.m., knocking the front two cars off the tracks and crashing into a room beyond the track. But Ms. Foster, 52, noticed something unnerving as she rolled into the station at about 8 a.m. on Wednesday.
Donette Smith, 55, who was on board, said people had begun to stand in the aisle as the train moved into the station. Then an “extremely hard” jolt sent everyone falling to the floor. “People just went flying,” she said. “Bodies were everywhere. It was very scary.” “The train just didn’t stop,” she said.
The passengers emerged to find the station filled with smoke. “I couldn’t see,” Ms. Smith said. Instead, it rammed into a bumping block, with the front striking a room beyond the track and the first two cars derailing, injuring more than 100 people, according to officials. Still, they said, the accident could have been far worse.
People were removed from the train on stretchers, some with neck braces, and one person had a bloody mouth, she said. “We were fortunate,” Daniel Donaghue, a deputy assistant fire chief, told reporters. A broken leg sustained by one woman appeared to be the most severe injury caused by the crash, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said.
Fire Department officials said the crash could have been far worse. One rail of Track 6, on which the train was traveling, sliced through the floor of a train car, they said. The crash caused substantial damage. The derailment, which disrupted the morning commute for thousands of riders, was reminiscent of a deadly crash in September in which a New Jersey Transit train plowed through a bumper at the end of a track at Hoboken Terminal, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 people.
Most of the injuries occurred when the train, which was traveling from Far Rockaway, Queens, came to an abrupt stop after crashing into the bumping block at the end of the track, said Thomas F. Prendergast, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the Long Island Rail Road. Passengers involved in the Brooklyn episode and those in the station at the time described the terrifying moment of impact and the disorienting scene that followed.
Mr. Prendergast said the train’s operator was responsible for stopping the train inside the station and that there were no other mechanisms on the train to prevent it from hitting the block at that point. He said that he did not know whether the train had been fitted with a camera, and that the train’s operator was being interviewed. “All of a sudden it was just like ‘boom!’” said Wendy Gerzog, 57, who was traveling to work in Lower Manhattan from Lawrence, N.Y.
“What happened with the operator, we don’t know,” said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who toured the scene. Steben Medina, 47, was having coffee at Atlantic Terminal when he heard the crash and then a series of screams.
Most of the passengers, who numbered between 600 and 700, were able to walk off the train. Officials said 106 people had been taken to hospitals, including Brooklyn Hospital Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and Kings County Hospital Center. “The entire structure started shaking,” he said. “I thought a bomb had gone off or something.”
The most severe injury appeared to be a woman who may have broken her leg, the governor said. Inside the train, which was carrying 600 to 700 people from Far Rockaway in Queens, passengers who had begun to stand in the aisles while waiting to get off were sent tumbling by the jolt. One rail of Track No. 6, on which the train was traveling, had sliced through the floor of a car, officials said.
The Fire Department responded around 8:20 a.m., said a deputy assistant fire chief, Daniel Donoghue. “It could’ve been quite a bit worse, without a doubt,” he said. “We were fortunate.” “People just went flying,” said Donette Smith, 55, who was sitting in the train’s second car.
Photographs and videos shared by commuters on social media in the moments after the crash showed the train at an slight angle with the platform. Firefighters escorted injured passengers away from the train while the police worked to disperse the crowd on the platform. Ms. Gerzog, who was on the first car and whose arm was injured, sat in a waiting room at Brooklyn Hospital Center hours after the crash, her left arm in a sling draped around her neck and shoulders. “I was on the bottom of the pile,” she said.
Mr. Prendergast said the lead car of the train and another axle had derailed. When the train came to rest, she said her car was tilted at upward angle. “We couldn’t get off because the train was all raised up by the door, up from the platform,” she said.
Steben Medina, a doorman from Sunset Park, was having a coffee at Atlantic Terminal when he heard a loud crash followed by a series of screams. “The entire structure started shaking,” said Mr. Medina, 47. “I thought a bomb had gone off or something.” She said she sat inside the damaged car and waited for emergency medical workers to take her out.
The derailment was reminiscent of a New Jersey Transit train crash in September that killed a woman who was standing on a platform at the terminal in Hoboken and injured more than 100 others. In that crash, an arriving train also plowed through the bumper at the end of a track and hit the station. Many passengers described the station filling with smoke after the crash. Most were able to walk off the train, though others were taken away in stretchers and wheelchairs. Some wore neck braces and others were bleeding, passengers said. A few limped or clutched at their arms as they tried to get their bearings after the crash.
In Brooklyn on Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo said the Hoboken crash had been “much worse — that train was coming in much faster, did much more damage, hurt many more people.” “The impact was bad,” said Tracie Brown, 44, a passenger who was treated for neck and back injuries at Brooklyn Hospital Center. “But the worst part was the panic of not knowing what happened.”
Officials said that investigators were looking to determine why the train did not stop short of the bumping block. The Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board said they would send a group of investigators to Brooklyn. Officials said that 106 people had been taken to hospitals, including Brooklyn Hospital Center, Kings County Hospital Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Ms. Foster, who had an aching back, was among those being treated at Brooklyn Hospital Center.
The Long Island Railroad is the nation’s busiest commuter railroad, with about 300,000 weekday customers riding trains on lines that stretch from the eastern tip of Long Island into New York City. Most trains originate or end in Manhattan, but Atlantic Terminal is the main hub in Brooklyn and a transfer point to nine subway lines. Officials said they did not expect to crash to affect the evening rush. “I just thank God there were no fatalities,” she said.
In Hoboken accident, federal officials determined that the train had suddenly accelerated as it was pulling in. The engineer told investigators that he awoke on the floor of the driving cab. His lawyer later said the engineer had severe sleep apnea that had gone undiagnosed. Thomas F. Prendergast, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the Long Island Rail Road, said officials did not know why the train failed to stop where it was supposed to.
On Wednesday, Tracie Brown was tended to at Brooklyn Hospital for her neck and back after the crash. She said she had been thrown out of her chair in the crash. There were plans to interview the train’s operator, who was responsible for stopping the train at the station — there is no other way for it to stop. Mr. Prendergast said he did not know whether the train was equipped with cameras.
“The impact was bad,” she said. “But the worst part was the panic of not knowing what happened.” The Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board said they had sent investigators to the scene.
Mr. Cuomo visited the crash site on Wednesday. “What happened with the operator, we don’t know,” he said. “Obviously, there’ll be an investigation: what happened, why the operator didn’t stop the train before it struck the bumping block.”
The governor noted some similarities to the Hoboken crash, but said that had been much worse. “That train was coming in much faster, did much more damage, hurt many more people,” he said.
The Long Island Rail Road is the nation’s busiest commuter railroad, with about 300,000 weekday passengers on lines that stretch from Long Island’s eastern tip to Manhattan. Atlantic Terminal is Brooklyn’s busiest transit hub, a nexus for nine subway lines in addition to the suburban trains.
The railroad’s last fatal crash was in 1950, when two crowded trains collided in Queens on the night before Thanksgiving, killing 79 people. Metro-North Railroad, which is the country’s second-busiest railroad and is also operated by the authority, has had two fatal crashes in recent years.
In the Hoboken accident, federal officials determined that the train had accelerated suddenly as it pulled into the station during the morning rush. The engineer told investigators that he woke up on the engine floor with little memory of what had happened. His lawyer later said that the engineer had severe sleep apnea that had not been diagnosed.
Officials did not say how fast the Long Island Rail Road train was traveling when it crashed on Wednesday, though passengers who ride the line on a regular basis said it felt as if it was moving at its normal speed.
One of those passengers, Aaron Neufeld, said he did not think anything was amiss as the train neared Atlantic Terminal.
“It seemed like a typical approach to me,” Mr. Neufeld, 26, a paralegal from North Woodmere, said. “People were standing and walking toward the doors just like usual.”
He said he had been sent across the car in the chaotic jumble caused by the crash, his head snapping forward, then back. He described “a kind of eerie quiet” as people composed themselves before rushing out of the train.
He said some of his friends had warned him to avoid the front car after the Hoboken crash. Now, he said, he would be sure to sit in the last car.
“You don’t expect something like this to happen at all,” he said, “until it happens to you.”