NTSB, Metro-North thank first responders, call wreck 'terrible tragedy'

VALHALLA, N.Y. -- It was a hellish scenario investigators had never seen before: 400 feet of electrified third rail snapped into 39-foot 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 uncommonly deadly.

The pieces went 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 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 driver had stopped on the tracks, between the lowered crossing gates, for reasons still unclear to investigators.

Metro-North 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 violent collision caused the shoe to act like a crowbar and pry up the third rail.

"This has never happened before, and this is a rare configuration of a third rail. Do those two add up to the explanation for this terrible, terrible tragedy? Very possibly," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said, calling the design "a real concern."

The National Transportation Safety Board said it is looking to answer that question among many others from the crash - a rare and unusually fiery instance of passenger deaths among the thousands of train-auto collisions each year.

At an evening briefing, NTSB vice chairman Robert Sumwalt said the third rail broke in 12 sections, each one 39 feet long.

The agency has said it also investigating whether the third rail became de-energized, as designed, when it started to break, or was still electrified as it speared the train.

In other developments:

- A funeral was held Friday for the SUV driver, 49-year-old Ellen Brody, at a synagogue in Dobbs Ferry. Brody worked at a jewelry store and was the mother of three daughters in their teens and 20s. Rabbi Benjy Silverman called her a "beautiful soul" who "adored her daughters and husband. She was their biggest fan and supporter."

- The railroad crossing had undergone a number of upgrades in recent years to reduce the risk of accidents, including the installation of brighter LED lights, "Do Not Stop on the Tracks" warning signs and new traffic signal control equipment. But a 2009 plan to install a third set of flashing lights 100 to 200 feet up the road to give motorists coming around the bend a few seconds' extra warning was never carried out, for reasons state and railroad officials were unable to explain.

Asked whether the extra lights could have prevented the tragedy, state Transportation Department spokesman Beau Duffy said: "It's way too early to be guessing about what could have or couldn't have made a difference."

As for the third rail, a railroad expert noted that the "under-running" design has been used for decades because it avoids the problems caused by ice building up on top of the third rail.

Steve Ditmeyer, a former Federal Railroad Administration official who teaches railway management at Michigan State University, said it is impossible to say whether the third-rail design was a factor in the fire without testing how the "over-running" system would have reacted in the same situation.

"One doesn't expect a train to push an automobile against the third rail," no matter how it's configured, he noted.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs Metro-North, declined to comment, citing the NTSB investigation.

The third rail is a common feature of subway systems. But among the nation's 28 commuter railroads, only Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad use third rail systems at all, according to the American Public Transit Association. Others use overhead wires or other forms of power.

More than 50 miles of Metro-North have the "under-running" design. The lines were built by a private railroad about a century ago, long before Metro-North's founding in 1983.

After the train hit the SUV at the crossing in Valhalla, the third rail penetrated the SUV, then pierced the floor of the train's first car. It "kept coming in, in, in, in," breaking up into pieces and going through the car's roof as the train hurtled 1,000 feet before coming to a stop, Schumer said.

"It's like looking into a coffin," he said of the burned-out train car. "It's one of the worst experiences I've had in elected life. ... It must have been a total nightmare."

The NTSB's lead investigator told the elected officials he hadn't seen anything like that happen before, Schumer said.

Associated Press writers Frank Eltman in Mineola, New York; David B. Caruso in New York; and Michael Kunzelman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this story.