VALHALLA, N.Y. (AP) – It was a hellish scenario investigators had never seen before: 400 feet of electrified third rail snapped into 12 pieces and speared a commuter train during a fiery collision with an SUV. Now officials want to know whether the rail’s unusual design explains why the crash was so deadly.
The 39-foot lengths of rail sliced through the first car of the train “like daggers going into the heart of that chamber,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Friday after getting a chilling look at the blackened, mangled wreckage.
The SUV driver and five train passengers were killed Tuesday evening in the rush-hour collision in Valhalla, about 20 miles north of New York City. The SUV had stopped on the tracks, between the lowered crossing gates, for reasons still unclear to investigators.
Metro-North, which operates in New York and Connecticut, is believed to be the only U.S. commuter railroad that uses the “under-running” or “under-riding” configuration: A metal “shoe” slips underneath the third rail rather than skimming along the top. Some have questioned whether the collision caused the shoe to pry up the third rail.
“This has never happened before, and this is a rare configuration of a third rail,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “Do those two add up to the explanation for this terrible, terrible tragedy? Very possibly.”