Marco della Cava

USA TODAY

A Long Island Rail Road commuter train and a work train performing track maintenance were traveling in the same direction when they "side-swiped" each other late Saturday, causing the commuter train to derail and injuring 33 people, New York state officials said Sunday. Four people were injured seriously.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said initial reviews indicate the yellow-painted maintenance train somehow entered the clearance space of the eastbound LIRR train, causing it to derail and leaving "a splatter of yellow paint where the first collision occurred."

Saturday night's derailment, on the tracks in western Long Island, shut down the popular New York-area commuting line.

Cuomo said about 600 people were on the train when it crashed.

Among the four people seriously injured, one passenger sustained multiple broken bones, The Associated Press reported. An LIRR worker suffered cuts, Metropolitan Transit Authority Chairman Thomas Prendergast said. Five railroad employees on the commuter train and two on the work train were among the injured, he said.

Craig Heller, one of 600 passengers aboard the LIRR train Saturday night, said his car started shaking suddenly after the collision. "We felt like we could actually completely tilt over while it was happening. That was a fear."

The first three cars of the 12-car train derailed around 9:15 p.m. ET near New Hyde Park between Jamaica and Hicksville, LIRR spokesman Sal Arena said. The work train caught fire after the crash.

Posts on Twitter showed photos and short video clips of a heavily damaged train car and emergency service vehicles on the scene.

Emergency workers used ladders to take the injured off the derailed train, which came to a stop on a hill in a remote area about 22 miles east of New York City.

Workers were trying to clear at least one of the two tracks before the Monday morning commute, Cuomo said.

The maintenance train had finished its track work Saturday night when it somehow violated the commuter train's space, Prendergast said. The LIRR train was likely traveling faster than the work train when they collided, he said.

The crash comes just weeks after a massive train crash in Hoboken, N.J., that left one woman dead and 108 passengers injured.