Where's the Final Report on the Deadly Metro-North Crash?

MOUNT PLEASANT, NY — It's been two years since an SUV drove onto the tracks in front of a Metro-North commuter train headed north on the Harlem Line, causing a fiery crash that killed six and injured 13.

The National Transportation Safety Board has yet to file its final report, and Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-Westchester, Rockland) wants to know why.

"NTSB released a preliminary report within weeks of the February 3, 2015 tragedy and an accident summary and other evidentiary documents later that year. However, the Board has yet to release its final report," she wrote in a letter to the NTSB Feb. 1. "Now that two years have elapsed, we need to continue to move forward to ensure this type of devastating collision does not happen again."

A spokesman for the agency said Wednesday an update on its investigation would be forthcoming this spring.

The crash, explosion and fire occurred at 6:30 p.m. Feb 3 on the Harlem Line just past the Valhalla Station. The victims: Edgemont resident Ellen Brody, the driver; and passengers in the first car Joseph Nadol of Ossining; Chappaqua resident Robert Dirks; Tomar Aditya, of Danbury; and Bedford residents Walter Liedtke and Eric Vandercar.

According to the preliminary findings, Brody was among many drivers trying to go around a traffic jam on the Taconic Parkway following an accident. She was in a line of cars on Commerce Street, trying to get back onto the parkway, at a place where the road bends just before the adjacent train tracks and traffic light. She was partially in the crossing, and as the train approached, the crossing bar came down on the back of her Mercedes. She got out of the car and looked at the crossing arm as the car behind her backed up to let her back out — but then got back in and accelerated forward right in front of the train.

Things the NTSB investigators knew right away: the crossing safety features had been working, the train had been under the speed limit, the engineer (among the injured) had seen Brody's car and both braked and sounded the horn.

Another thing NTSB investigators knew right away: About 400 feet of the electrified third rail sliced into both the Mercedes and the packed commuter train at impact.

“At the point of the collision the SUV was pushed about 1,000 feet down the tracks,” said National Traffic Safety Board member Robert Suwalt during a briefing Feb. 5, 2015. “During that time the electrified rail, the third rail, penetrated the chassis of the automobile behind and below the driver’s seat.”

It came out at an angle, hitting the train just in front of the first set of wheels, which further leveraged it up, in 80-foot sections that piled up in the first rail car, which was utterly consumed by fire.

In December 2015, the NTSB released the 1,100-document docket detailing the crash. Click here to view it.

While dozens of lawsuits are pending, the feds have filed nothing since.

SEE ALSO:

• Federal Investigators Start Probe of Deadly Train Crash
• Bedford Resident Eric Vandercar Among Victims
• Harlem Line Tragedy: Engineer Credited With Saving Lives
• Bedford Hills Resident Walter Liedtke Among Victims in Metro North Tragedy
• Edgemont Resident Ellen Brody Among Victims in Metro North Tragedy
• Update: Last Three Victims ID’d in Deadly Feb. 3 Crash
• Chaos, Sadness and Prayers: A Commuter’s Train Ride When Tragedy Struck
• Metro-North Harlem Line Tragedy: Timeline; Feds Collecting Evidence
• NY to Evaluate, Prioritize Dangerous Rail Crossings
• New Castle Asks for Overpass at Roaring Brook Grade Crossing
• Harlem Line Tragedy: Safety Systems at Crossing Were Working, Investigators Say
• Grants for Metro-North Grade Crossings in Mount Pleasant, Chappaqua, More
• Cuomo: Grade Crossings 'Just Accidents Waiting to Happen'
• MTA Launches Grade Crossing Safety Campaign

Federal lawmakers put $350 million for rail safety in last year’s Omnibus appropriations bill. That, Lowey pointed out, resulted in recently-announced grants over $5 million for upgrades at 10 different crossings throughout Westchester and Rockland. New York is receiving more than 20 percent of the allocated funds for this program.

Under new legislation in New York, the state will evaluate and prioritize the danger of all 5,304 grade crossings, including commuter, long-distance passenger and freight lines.