Скачать или смотреть Commuter Train Hits SUV in New York City Suburbs - 7 Killed

Commuter Train Hits SUV in New York City Suburbs - 7 Killed
Commuter Train Hits SUV in New York City Suburbs - 7 Killed
Commuter Train Hits SUV in New York City Suburbs - 7 Killed

#Commuter Train Crash
#Commuter Train Crash In New York
#Commuter Train Crash In New York City Suburbs

Seven people were killed after a crowded commuter train slammed into a sport utility vehicle on the tracks north of New York City Tuesday, in a crash that caused the SUV to explode in a fireball that set the front of the train ablaze, officials said. At least 12 people were hurt.

"You have seven people who started out today to go about their business, and aren't going to be making it home tonight," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters Tuesday night near the scene of the 6:30 p.m. crash in Valhalla, about 30 miles north of Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. "It's a painful reminder to all of us how precious life is, and sometimes how random it can be."

Six of the dead were on the northbound train, Cuomo said. The driver of the Jeep was also killed. That train typically carries about 650 people when it leaves Grand Central bound for northern suburbs, officials said.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the Jeep was stopped on the tracks when a railroad crossing gate came down on top of it. The driver got out, checked the rear of the vehicle, and then she got back in and drove forward and was struck by the train, the agency said.

Cuomo called the scene of devastation "a truly ugly and brutal sight." The Jeep was pushed 400 feet down the track, and the third rail was torn up and sent through the vehicle and into the first car.

"When you look at the damage done, and the damage by the fire, it's actually amazing that not more people were hurt on that train," Cuomo said. The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched a team of investigators to the crash site.

Passengers described a jolt, and then an announcement that the train had struck a vehicle. Some passengers had to break the glass on doors to get out; others used ladders to descend from the stopped train.

Jamie Wallace was sitting in the second car from the front when the train slammed into the Jeep. There were panicked calls for a fire extinguisher farther up the train, he said, but the doors to the first car were jammed shut. They tried to break the glass to reach the first car.

"A number of us were smelling fumes from the car, fuel, and we said, 'you know, we need to get out.' The fire was starting to spread back toward the second car," Wallace told NBC New York.