Cuomo: Grade Crossings 'Just Accidents Waiting to Happen'

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said seven grade-crossings on the Long Island Railroad will be eliminated as part of a massive project to build a third track along the commuter line's right-of-way.

During an announcement Tuesday on the improvement project, Cuomo used the fatal 2015 Metro-North crash a year ago in Valhalla as his example of how horrible grade crossing accidents are. Safety systems at the crossing were working properly, but didn't stop a car from going onto the tracks in front of a crowded evening commuter train.

Reacting to his remarks, officials in Rockland and Westchester County said they hoped the state would also tackle the Metro-North grade crossings.

We agree 100 percent that grade crossings are dangerous, said New Castle Town Supervisor Rob Greenstein, who has been calling for an overpass at the grade crossing in Chappaqua at Roaring Brook Road and the Saw Mill River Parkway since the February crash killed six.. "The problem is funding. We need funding from both the state and federal government."

State Sen. David Carlucci (D-Rockland/Westchester) has a bill before the New York legislature that would require the Department of Transportation to evaluate the safety of all 5,304 rail grade crossings in New York.

"This will allow us to see which crossings need safety improvements, or eliminated entirely," Carlucci said. "The safety of motorists at rail grade crossings must be a top priority for lawmakers if we are to avoid another tragedy like what happened in Valhalla last year."

In his remarks Cuomo said:

Grade crossings. If this nation was really thinking ahead, we would have addressed grade crossings nationwide years ago. They are just accidents waiting to happen.We have 5,000 grade crossings in the state of New York. About 300 on Long Island. Just by definition, they are dangerous and every once and a while there is a terrible accident and we are spurred into activity and people say, “Oh, look at this terrible accident; we have to do something.” I remember a relatively young man, Herricks Road, there was a terrible accident and teenagers were killed and everyone was outraged. We have to do a better grade crossing at that point. Since 1980, we have had about 25 deaths at grade crossings. Chairman Prendergast and I, one of the joys of being Governor were – we were some of the first on the scene just a few months back when a women was killed in her car after being hit on the Metro-North. We were at the accident site and a more horrendous sight, you could not see. She was still in the car, it was melted on to the front of the train and the car and she were basically disintegrated. She got stuck at a railroad crossing, it was her first time there, there was traffic and she couldn’t get off. The train came and that was it.

So there are seven grade crossings that can actually be fixed as part of this project. We are doing the third track – we’ll fix the grade crossings. We will fix them in concert with the community. We brought in the local mayors; I said, “Tell us how you want to do it. It is not really rocket science. You can go under the track, you can go over the track. Tell us how you want to do it.