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The Metropolitan Transit Authority hasn’t had a banner few years in the area, with several accidents, derailments and suspected suicides since 2013 taking place on the tracks, including last year’s accident, which was the deadliest train crash in the nation for more than five years.
In May of 2013, a Metro-North train in Fairfield, Conn. that was heading toward Manhattan was hit by a New Haven-bound train when it flew off the tracks, injuring five critically. In December of that year, a tired Metro-North engineer dozed off at the controls, hitting a curve in the Bronx too quickly, causing a derailment that took the lives of four and injured 75 other passengers.
A year ago on Wednesday, six people lost their lives when a Metro-North train struck a Mercedes ML 350 SUV that was stopped in the crossing, sending deadly pieces of the track hurtling through the first few train cars. Then, in May, the engineer operating an Amtrak train from Philadelphia was too slow to hit the emergency break on the way to Manhattan, where he hit one of the sharpest curves in the northeast rail lines at more than double the legal speed limit, causing a derailment that injured more than 200 passengers.
Following the accident on the rails last year in Valhalla, commuter Elizabeth Bordiga said that she has “never seen anything like it before,” in 15 years of taking the train to and from her Mamaroneck home.
“It was like the conductor was slamming on the brakes. The car shook violently a few times, and we were all wondering what happened. We thought maybe ice or something like that,” she said. ‘We heard the conductor go on the loudspeaker to say something, but nothing ever came.
Eight months ago, in June, a man was struck and killed by a passenger-free train near the Hartsdale train station, and just this week, Metro-North lines were forced into massive rush hour delays after a teenager from Fordham Preparatory School was fatally struck by a train on Monday, adding to the recent tragedies on the rails.
Following several lengthy investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board, the MTA has stressed safety at their stations, including a partnership with Operation Lifesaver - one of the nation’s top rail crossing safety organizations - and dedicated a full-time agreement with a consulting company to produce pilot risk assessment programs at nearly two dozen Metro-North stations. Safety at crossings and ensuring there is proper signage and lighting in advance of an oncoming train has also been stressed by officials since the rash of incidents.
A year later, no improvements have yet to be made at the Valhalla crossing as the NTSB continues its investigation into the accident.
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