Car lands on Metro-North tracks, bursts into flames in Valhalla

VALHALLA (WABC) -- A car went out of control Monday night and landed on Metro-North tracks in Valhalla, bursting into flames.

At about 6:30 p.m., investigators say Robert Abdoo of Armonk hit the wrong pedal of his Toyota Venza and drove through a fence, across the electrified third rail, and over the first set of tracks.

Moments after the car landed on the tracks, men from a gas station sprinted across the busy Bronx River Parkway, carefully avoided the third rail, grabbed the shaken up driver and escorted him to safety.

"I just thought about my family and anybody else. You wouldn't want to get stuck in that kind of situation, so you would hope somebody would come and get you too, right?," said eyewitness Paul Thompson.

"Oh, you should have seen it. It was like fireworks. Twice he tried to jump the rail and twice it shorted and blew up. Very lucky man, you kidding, very, very lucky," said another eyewitness, Angelo Zervoudis.

The 63-year old driver had an orthopedic boot on his right foot. He was in no mood to chat with us about what happened.

"He's very fortunate. I mean if there was a train coming through that would have been a totally different story," said Valhalla volunteer firefighter Roger King.

The fence that landed on the third rail became electrified itself and sparked a fire outside the Valhalla Crossing Restaurant.

"I saw flames from the kitchen window. I came out, the car has gone through the gate, it's on fire. My deck was on fire. We doused that out," said Stan Chelluck of Valhalla Crossing.

The accident happened during the evening rush hour, which delayed northbound trains packed with commuters.

The crash and fire damaged the tracks, railroad ties and third rail, leaving a significant amount of repair work for Metro-North workers to tackle before the Tuesday morning commute.