Matt Coyne, and Gabriel Rom

The Journal News

UPDATE: Cuomo calls for action on rail crossings

BEDFORD - Disaster was narrowly averted when a Metro-North train collided with an unoccupied car at the Green Lane crossing Wednesday afternoon. The crash, which left no injuries, severely disrupted service on the Harlem Line during the evening commute.



Officials said the driver of the car, identified as Joyce Opoku, 43, of New Windsor, was stopped at the crossing when the crossing signal and gates were activated in advance of the oncoming northbound train. She told investigators that she then tried unsuccessfully to put her car in reverse as the crossing gates came down on the car.

There were no people in the car at the time of the collision, Metro-North said.The incident — just the latest in a series of rail-crossing crashes in the region — happened about 3:25 p.m. Metro-North officials said the train was northbound at the time.

MTA Police said Opoku, a home health care aide, was able to get herself and her 87-year-old passenger out of the car to safety only seconds before the speeding train struck the front side of the car.

The older woman, who identified herself to a Journal News photographer as Audrey Hoffner, said she was a passenger in the car. "We saw that it was going to be hit and we ran out," she said.

Both Hoffner and Opoku appeared shaken, but remained at the scene. Opoku's history as a home health care aide includes a guilty plea in 2014 to a misdemeanor charge for failing to check on an 84-year-old Korean War veteran who died during an overnight fall at the state Veterans' Home in Montrose.

MTA Police said the crossing gate and crossing signals were operating properly and that Opoku was issued a summons for illegally blocking a railroad crossing.

As of 8:50 p.m. customers were experiencing scattered residual delays of up to 15 minutes on northbound and southbound trains. Service was back on schedule by Thursday morning, according to the MTA.

None of the 77 passengers on board the train was injured, MTA officials said. After the crash they were transferred safely to a second northbound train and continued their journeys more than an hour behind schedule.

EARLIER STORY: Train crossings - Officials seek to prevent collisions

MTA: Education best way to prevent rail-crossing crashes

A passenger, Maegan Rosenberg of Pleasantville, shared a photo and her experience with lohud via Twitter, writing: "The train didn't stop very hard. It wasn't until I looked out the window that I realized we weren't at a stop, but we're in the middle of nowhere."

She said she moved onto the "rescue train" about 5:15 p.m. and was riding it northbound.

Another passenger, Jennifer Vignogna, said she wasn't immediately aware that the train had hit a car.

"We came to an abrupt stop but I had no clue why until one of the MTA workers was running up the aisle saying, 'Oh my God' over and over," she said. "We could see the owner of the car across the street, visibly upset but clearly not injured."

The accident comes at a time when Metro-North and its parent company, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, are continuing the debate over the cost and feasibility of eliminating the over 400 grade-level rail crossings throughout the MTA system.

On Metro-North, between March 2014 and February 2015 there was a single grade-crossing incident, the Valhalla train crash that killed six and injured 28, according to statistics released at a recent MTA committee meeting. Between March 2015 and February 2016, there were two.

The Federal Railroad Administration has also repeatedly called for improving safety at rail-grade crossings, dangling the possibility of federal funds to help do so.

In Bedford on Wednesday, Frank Masella, who owns a local auto body shop near the train crossing, said: "This stuff happens at least once a year. People follow the GPS looking for the Saw Mill (Parkway) and end up getting stuck on the tracks."

Area resident Nick Rutigliano said he was shopping at the nearby ShopRite when he heard the impact and quickly realized what had happened.

"I heard a loud, long horn blast and then the crash," he said. "And with a bang like that, it had to hit something."

In 2008, there were three train-car accidents at Green Lane, including two involving drivers whose GPS devices guided them onto the tracks.

In the aftermath of the incidents, in which no one was injured, the state transportation department spent close to $300,000 to make changes. A hump in the road was reduced, reflective markers were added and pylons were installed to prevent people from inadvertently turning onto the tracks.