Westbury Wreck 02/26/2019

ConstanceR46 wrote:Mac, that's pure and utter speculation and just as likely as Karen the Soccer Mom not wanting to miss her kid's practice. IIt feels voyeuristic to act like this was just desserts.

It's not complete speculation.

Newsday wrote:The vehicle involved in the collision, heading south on School Street around 7:20 p.m., was involved in a minor auto accident only "seconds" before fleeing the scene and crashing, first into an eastbound LIRR train and then a westbound train, according to a witness identified by [Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick] Ryder as an occupant of the other vehicle involved in the two-car crash.

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/tra ... 1.27819166

Accidents of this type happen so often that there's a name for it: "second-train syndrome." A motorist sees a train standing at a station or slowly starting to move and completely fails to notice a train approaching at speed in the opposite direction (or, on that part of the LI, the same direction on the adjacent track).

But in this case it was hit by the first train. The second train came well after the first.

Do we know the time lapse between the two crashes? Thanks.

A witness aboard the east bound train involved said there was an announcement after her train hit the car, then the west bound came through. So there must have been a gap between trains striking the car.

Have the derailed cars been moved away? I have not seen any news report stating that.
Also, I imagine there will have to be some track repair. Anyone have updates?

My pal on Flickr Edward Hand, took a photo from the Ellison Avenue bridge yesterday. When he took the photo the lead car was still wedged into the Eastern end of the Westbound platform. In addition they have been replacing power poles despite the fact that power lines were not torn down. His photo also showed new ballast, those small little red flags, and Jersey barriers at Urban Avenue as they continue to work on eliminating that crossing.

As of 10:45 AM today, they are still doing repairs and cleanup with service changes on the Port Jefferson/Huntington and Ronkonkoma Branches.

As of 12 Noon today, the wrecked pair of cars is gone and Union Ave. is reopened to traffic. The LIRR is announcing almost full service for this evening, with only a few cancellations. Not withstanding public opinion to the contrary, I'd say the LIRR did a pretty good job all considered.

H-E View:

Yes-The LIRR restored service promptly getting as back to normal as possible despite all the track and equipment damage along with the removal of about two carlengths of Platform A at Westbury Station that was struck by the derailed cars. The cleanup has taken under 48 hours to accomplish.

How did car #7425 take pieces of the platform upon impact into the passenger compartment? This happened without damaging the car sides or the front end above the head/tail light areas or breaking either of the windshields and the front door window.

Cars 7425-7426 will at least be held for further legal investigation for the foreseeable time and depending on how badly damaged the interior of 7425 is it could end up being written off.

MACTRAXX

I saw the two cars that hit the platform in the side just east of Merlin Ave station in the siding on the north side. They were there with 2 mp15s. This was at 6pm today.

The car numbers were 7425-7426. I think what happened was the flat concrete platform slabs broke thru the front of the train and slid horizontally thru the engineer's cab, through the cab partition and into the passenger compartment.

The School St. crossing has been reopened to normal traffic. There was an MTA police officer sitting there this evening with warning lights on.

It's a damn good thing the engineer saw what was coming and bailed when he did or he would have been seriously injured or worse. I hope all the crew members involved recover from the experience and injuries and are able to return to work in the near future.

H-E View:

For some reason today (2/28) I had M1s on my mind when I posted this afternoon...

I really meant M7 cars 7425-7426 and made appropriate corrections to my previous post above.

More information that was brought out in Newsday and News 12 Long Island in what turned out to be a tragic turn of events for the three men killed was that they all worked at a local Fine Fare Supermarket on Old Country Road in Westbury and through surveillance video NCPD was able to to find a timeline of their whereabouts leading up to their going around the gates at the School St. Crossing around 7:15 to 7:20 PM on Tuesday February 26th.

They were seen at a barber shop and then went into a bar/restaurant next door and what may have been a factor is that the driver of the vehicle had been under the influence of alcohol enough to have been a DWI situation and ran after getting into a reported "fender-bender" due to license or other MV issues. What also may have been a prime factor in this tragedy contributing to their desperate try to drive around the gates at the School Street crossing is that possibly they were being "cornered" at the crossing and made a futile - and fatal - mistake trying to get away.

In closing this entire situation is something that should have never happened in the firstplace.
Enough said...MACTRAXX

The siding East of Merillon Avenue is on the South side, which was constructed when Herricks Road was eliminated over twenty years ago.

As someone who always sits in the front car when he boards, I've had friends ask me, "Aren't you afraid if something happens you could get hurt?" Honestly it doesn't scare me, phase me, or make me think otherwise. If I was on board car 7425 that night, I would have noticed the engineer blowing the horn with authority, and when he bolted he would have grabbed me or told me to run with him to the back of the front car and brace. Afterwards we would have been fine.

Now, I read in A Modern LI that from 2007-2017 we had six fatal grade crossing accidents involving car/train at the grade crossings between Floral Park and Hicksville. When did those six take place and where? If anything that stretch is lucky compared to the Ronkonkoma Branch which has seen fatal grade crossing incidents at Straight Path, Carll's Path, Executive Drive, and Second Street. Of the six previous, the only one I can think of is an incident at Covert Avenue in New Hyde Park in 2012.

As of this morning's AM Rush, service is back to normal, but for all Ronkonkoma Branch customers unfortunately you will not have service for the second straight weekend due to a track work program.

I read in A Modern LI that from 2007-2017 we had six fatal grade crossing accidents involving car/train at the grade crossings between Floral Park and Hicksville. When did those six take place and where?

That figure doesn't sound right. Here's the Railroad's last ten years:

Fatal Grade Crossing Accidents - Ten Years
Long Island Rail Road Co. (FRA reporting)

FEB. 26, 2019: School Street, Westbury - 3 dead.

MARCH, 3, 2018: Northport - 1 dead.

SEPT. 18, 2017: West of Deer Park - 1 dead.

JAN. 9, 2017: West of Brentwood - 1 dead.

MARCH 22, 2016: Elijahs Lane in Mattituck - 1 dead.

MAY 10, 2013: Near Brentwood - 1 dead.

JAN. 22, 2013: 2nd Street in Brentwood - 2 dead

JUNE 11, 2012: Near Route 111, Islip - 1 dead.

MAY 17, 2011: Deer Park - 1 dead.

MAY 2, 2009: Carleton Avenue, Central Islip - 1 dead.

FEB. 14, 2009: Robbins Lane, Syosset. - 1 dead.

The May 17th, 2011 incident was at Executive Drive when a bakery truck driver tried to go around the gates. That hit was so hard, the train launched the truck 10 feet in the air. Executive Drive has to be the most hazardous on the Ronkonkoma Branch even if there is no train involved. Several 18-wheelers have gotten stuck on the barriers/tracks, the signals have almost been pulverized, train/vehicle collisions etc.

Note to self when you are there, watch out for flying and falling rogue golf balls!