From: de-blasfail@nyc.com   
      
   XPost: nyc.politics, soc.women, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.liberalism   
      
   What a fucking Darwin award moron.  The gene pool remains   
   unaffected and low because this fool was bred and conceived   
   three retards.   
      
   The woman killed behind the wheel of her Mercedes in a gruesome   
   wreck with a Metro-North commuter train was identified Wednesday   
   as the married mother of three kids.   
      
   Ellen Brody, 49, was headed home from her job at a Chappaqua   
   jewelry design shop Tuesday evening when she died in the fiery   
   6:30 p.m. crash at a Westchester County railroad crossing, The   
   Journal News reported.   
      
   The Edgemont woman’s car was first struck Tuesday evening by a   
   gate at the intersection with the Metro-North tracks, and she   
   stepped outside to check for damage, a source said.   
      
   “She got back in her car and for whatever reason went forward a   
   little bit,” the source said. “The train would have missed her   
   by a good 6 or 7 feet.”   
      
   Neither Brody nor the train’s engineer was able to do anything   
   in the seconds before impact to stop the crash that killed five   
   commuters riding in the train’s quiet car.   
      
   Brody and her husband Alan, a South African native, were   
   longtime residents of Edgemont. The couple, described as a   
   prominent and active local family, had two daughters and a son.   
      
   The SUV driver was one of three victims identified after all six   
   victims were burned beyond recognition. Passengers Eric   
   Vandercar, 53, of Bedford Hills, and Walter Liedtke, a curator   
   with the Metropolitan Musuem of Art, were also believed killed   
   in the crash.   
      
   It may take another full day to positively identify the three   
   remaining male passengers killed in the fiery crash at a   
   Westchester County railroad crossing, officials said.   
      
   “All the bodies are thoroughly burned,” said county executive   
   Rob Astorino shortly after federal investigators arrived looking   
   for answers in the horrific Tuesday evening tragedy.   
      
   One patient remained in critical condition at the Westchester   
   Medical Center, with another listed in serious condition,   
   authorities said.   
      
   Six more victims were in good or fair condition, while four were   
   treated and released, said Patricia Wrobbel, the hospital’s   
   chief nursing executive.   
      
   Federal investigators arrived Wednesday at the gruesome crash   
   scene to start their probe of the rush-hour wreck between a   
   stopped Mercedes Benz SUV and a Metro-North train doing 60 mph.   
      
   “Our intent is to find out not only what happened, but why it   
   happened,” said National Transportation Safety Board member   
   Robert Sunwalt.   
      
   A full 400 feet of track and the electrified third rail was torn   
   up before the train and the vehicle screeched to a stop, said   
   Astorino.   
      
   A source indicated that some of the dead passengers were sliced   
   by the rail when it tore through the bottom of the train “like   
   it was cutting through butter ... They didn’t have a chance to   
   even try and escape.”   
      
   All five were sitting on the same side of the train, the source   
   said. Five separate pieces of rail pierced the train at   
   different points, stretching across the first three cars,   
   according to the source.   
      
   One commuter who escaped from the train’s last car said the   
   flames were so intense that the windows were melting despite the   
   freezing temperatures.   
      
   “As soon as we got out, you could see the smoke and see the   
   fire,” said Michael Hinck, an 11-year commuting veteran. “Once   
   they got the fire out, the smoke was just black.”   
      
   A source said the force of the crash wiped out a wooden shed   
   alongside the tracks, and the third rail was driven through the   
   bottom of the train car “like it was cutting through butter,” a   
   source said.   
      
   The train’s engineer managed to slam on the brakes after spying   
   the stranded car, but it was too late to avoid the massive   
   collision, said Valhalla Fire Department Chief Roger King.   
      
   “He saw the car well ahead of the crossing and immediately   
   locked the brakes,” King said. “But a train going 60 mph doesn’t   
   stop on a dime. In an instant, he was seeing flames and smoke   
   filling the train car.”   
      
   The hunk of rail that tore through the train barely missed the   
   engineer, who helped several passengers escape the flaming wreck.   
      
   “He was really on top of his game,” said King. “His life was in   
   danger, too.”   
      
   Fifteen people were injured in the wreck that sent a fireball   
   into the sky and through the first car of the train.   
      
   “It appears that the gasoline tank burst and that started the   
   fire, consumed the (SUV) and consuming the first car of the   
   first train,” Cuomo said on “CBS This Morning.”   
      
   The scene of the deadliest crash in Metro-North history was “as   
   gruesome as I have seen,” the governor said. The entire first   
   car, including all the seats, was burned or charred.   
      
   “It’s total devastation,” said one source who spoke with first   
   responders. “The entire length of the interior is burned.”   
      
   The NTSB dispatched an “interdisciplinary team” to examine   
   various factors, including the signaling system at the crossing   
   and how the train was being operated — including the rate of   
   speed, said spokesman Eric Weiss said.   
      
   Rail investigator Michael Hiller is leading the team as   
   investigator in charge, with Sumwalt accompanying the team from   
   Washington.   
      
   “We cast a very large net and try to gather all factual   
   information,” Sumwalt said. “Everything is on the table.”   
      
   Cuomo, on the CBS-TV morning show, said it was too soon to start   
   pointing fingers.   
      
   “Sometimes there are just accidents,” he said. “Sometimes people   
   just get themselves in bad situations. So I think it’s too soon   
   to say what’s to blame or who’s to blame.”   
      
   The NTSB team will stay on the scene for five to seven days, but   
   a full investigation will take about a year. They had already   
   recovered several key recording devices that will provide them   
   with the train speed and other important details.   
      
   According to witnesses, the woman driving the Mercedes Benz SUV   
   drove on the tracks at the railroad crossing — and then stopped   
   when one of the gates came down and struck her vehicle.   
      
   She stepped out to check on the Mercedes, but climbed back in   
   the car as the train barreled down the tracks at about 6:30 p.m.   
   Tuesday near Valhalla. She couldn’t move the SUV before the   
   horrifying crash that was so violent that the electrified third   
   rail tore through the bottom of the charred rail car.   
      
   “I am amazed that anyone got off that train alive,” said   
   Astorino. “It must have been pure panic, with the flames, the   
   third rail and the smoke.”   
      
   The wreck occurred about 45 minutes after the northbound train   
   left Grand Central Terminal at 5:45 p.m., with an estimated 650   
   people aboard. The flaming SUV was driven about 400 feet down   
   the track before screeching to a halt.   
      
   The passengers fled the burning train before authorities arrived.   
      
   The previous worst Metro-North wreck killed four passengers in   
   December 2013 when a commuter train derailed in the Bronx. That   
   train took a dangerously sharp curve at nearly three times the   
   30 mph limit and jumped the track.   
      
   http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ntsb-heads-westchester-   
   investigate-metro-north-crash-article-1.2102750   
      
   http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ntsb-heads-westchester-   
   investigate-metro-north-crash-article-1.2102750   
      
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