From: de-blasfail@nyc.com   
      
   XPost: nyc.politics, soc.women, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.liberalism   
      
   VALHALLA, N.Y. (AP) — The baffling behavior of a woman whose SUV   
   stopped between the crossing gates on a railroad track came   
   under scrutiny Wednesday as investigators sought clues to a   
   fiery commuter train crash that killed six people.   
      
   National Transportation Safety Board officials were looking at   
   the Metro-North train's black-box-style recorders, seeking to   
   learn its speed, whether brakes were applied and whether it   
   sounded its horn as it approached the suburban New York crossing   
   where it slammed into the SUV, NTSB vice chairman Robert Sumwalt   
   said.   
      
   "We intend to find out not only what happened, but we want to   
   find out why it happened," he said at the site of Tuesday   
   evening's rush-hour collision in Valhalla, about 20 miles north   
   of New York City.   
      
   Later Wednesday, Sen. Charles Schumer said early indications are   
   that the train was going 58 mph, or within the 60-to-70-mph   
   speed limit that area.   
      
   Investigators also planned to look at the track signals'   
   recording devices, interview the train's operators, peer into   
   the wreckage with laser-scanning devices and seek aerial   
   footage, he said.   
      
   Meanwhile, officials were using dental records to identify the   
   badly burned victims — five men on the train and the SUV driver,   
   officials said. Several others remained hospitalized, at least   
   two with critical or serious injuries.   
      
   It was the deadliest accident in the 22-year history of one of   
   the nation's busiest commuter railroads — one that has come   
   under a harsh spotlight over a series of accidents in recent   
   years.   
      
   "It's really inexplicable, based on the facts we have now," Gov.   
   Andrew Cuomo said on WCBS-AM radio.   
      
   The wreck happened after dark in heavy traffic in an area where   
   the tracks are straight but driving can be tricky. Motorists   
   exiting or entering the adjacent Taconic Parkway have to turn   
   and cross the tracks near a wooded area and a cemetery.   
      
   The driver had gotten out of her Mercedes SUV momentarily after   
   the crossing's safety gates came down around her and hit her   
   car, according to the driver behind her, Rick Hope.   
      
   "I said to myself, 'The clock is ticking here, the gate is down,   
   the bells are ringing — what are you going to do here?'" he told   
   WNYW-TV. "She looked a little confused, gets back in the car and   
   pulls forward" on the tracks.   
      
   Traffic was moving slowly at the time, choked with drivers   
   seeking to avoid the Taconic Parkway because of an accident, he   
   noted.   
      
   "It looks like she stopped where she stopped because she didn't   
   want to go on the tracks," Hope added. "It was dark, so maybe   
   she didn't know she was in front of the gate."   
      
   Railroad grade crossings typically have gate arms designed to   
   lift automatically if they hit a car or other object on the way   
   down, railroad safety consultant Grady Cothen said. The wooden   
   arms are designed to be easily broken if a car trapped between   
   them moves forward or backward, he said.   
      
   As of Wednesday morning, transit officials hadn't found any   
   problems with the tracks or signal, Westchester County Executive   
   Rob Astorino said.   
      
   It was not the first deadly crash at the site: A Metro-North   
   train hit a truck, killing its driver, at the same Commerce   
   Street crossing in 1984, according to Federal Railroad   
   Administration records.   
      
   Rep. Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y, said Tuesday's accident underscores   
   the need for positive train control, a technology that uses WiFi   
   and GPS to monitor trains' exact position and automatically   
   applies the brakes to prevent collisions or lessen their   
   severity. While not specifically designed to address grade-   
   crossing accidents, the technology can be expanded for such   
   purposes, he said.   
      
   Congress passed a 2008 law that requires all railroads to   
   install positive train control by the end of 2015, but it's   
   clear most of them will not meet the deadline.   
      
   The crash was so powerful that the electrified third rail came   
   up and pierced the train, and the SUV was pushed about 400 feet.   
   Cuomo said the SUV's gas tank apparently exploded, starting a   
   fire that consumed the SUV and the train's first car, which was   
   left blackened and mangled.   
      
   Elizabeth Bordiga was commuting home from her New York City   
   nursing job when she suddenly felt the train jerk a few times.   
   She and other passengers in the middle part of the train started   
   calmly walking to the back. But then they started smelling   
   gasoline, "and somebody said, "There's a fire," she recalled.   
      
   But they couldn't open the emergency window or figure out how to   
   escape until a firefighter in the train got a door open, she   
   said. Commuters lifted each other down from the train to the   
   ground about 7 feet below, said Bordiga, who uses a cane.   
      
   "When I was on the ground, I looked to the right and saw flames.   
   I couldn't believe it," she said.   
      
   In the first car, a man whose own hands were burned elbowed open   
   the emergency exit latch, allowing some of the train's roughly   
   700 passengers to escape, passenger Christopher Gross recalled   
   on ABC's "Good Morning America."   
      
   The train's engineer tried to rescue people until the smoke and   
   flames got so severe that he had to escape, Astorino said.   
      
   Every day, trains travel across more than 212,000 highway-grade   
   rail crossings in the U.S. There are an average of 230 to 250   
   deaths a year at such crossings, down over 50 percent from two   
   decades ago, FRA figures show.   
      
   Risky driver behavior or poor judgment accounts for 94 percent   
   of grade crossing accidents, according to a 2004 government   
   report.   
      
   Metro-North is the nation's second-busiest commuter railroad,   
   after the Long Island Rail Road, serving about 280,000 riders a   
   day.   
      
   Late last year, the NTSB issued rulings on five Metro-North   
   accidents in New York and Connecticut in 2013 and 2014,   
   repeatedly finding fault with the railroad.   
      
   Among the accidents was a 2013 derailment in the Bronx that   
   killed four people, the railroad's first passenger fatalities,   
   The NTSB said the engineer had fallen asleep at the controls   
   because of a severe, undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.   
      
   ___   
      
   Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz, Ula Ilnytzky and Meghan   
   Barr in New York; Joan Lowy in Washington; and Michael Kunzelman   
   in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.   
      
   http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/us/article/Commuter-train-slams-   
   into-SUV-on-tracks-killing-6060921.php#/0   
      
   --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03   
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)