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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 26 July 2017

Investigators don’t know why driver wound up on rail tracks

said her actions were the mind, but he hypothesized gency brake when he no-
great mystery of the crash. that she had been inching ticed the SUV in the path.
“There are numerous pos- along in traffic, watching Investigators found all the
sibilities which may have the car in front of her, and signals were working prop-
contributed to why she got wasn’t aware that the she erly; the brakes worked
out of the car, why she did had driven into a railroad and were pulled on time;
not realize the train was ap- crossing. the warning signs at the
proaching,” he said. “We “I don’t think she realized crossing worked and were
examined every possible where she was,” he said. “I properly marked; the train
situation and circumstance think it was just a loss of situ- wasn’t speeding; the en-
and we could not arrive at ational awareness.” gineer wasn’t fatigued or
a definite conclusion.” Meanwhile, the engineer distracted; the track wasn’t
He said it was impossible to noticed something on the faulty; and the emergency
know what was in Brody’s tracks and pulled the emer- exit windows worked.q

In this Feb. 4, 2015 photo,
workers survey the scene
of a deadly commuter train
accident in Valhalla, N.Y., in
which a packed Metro-North
Railroad train slammed into a
SUV stuck on the tracks and
erupted into flames. Federal
investigators have concluded
that the fiery crash was extra
deadly because of an unusual
rail design, a U.S. official
told The Associated Press on
Monday, July 24, 2017.
(F. Becerra Jr./The Journal
News via AP)
By COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Fed-
eral safety investigators
haven’t been able to de-
termine why the driver of
an SUV drove her car into
a railroad crossing and into
the path of an oncoming
train, causing a crash that
killed six people outside
New York City in 2015.
The National Transporta-
tion Safety Board met Tues-
day in Washington, D.C.,
to detail the results of a
two-and-a-half year inves-
tigation into the crash at a
crossing in the town of Val-
halla.
The impact sparked an
explosion, and flames
blasted into the passenger
area, burning out the first
car of the train. The driver
of the SUV and five peo-
ple aboard the train were
killed. More than a dozen
others were injured.
NTSB investigators found
that the SUV’s driver, El-
len Brody, wasn’t on the
phone, impaired or fa-
tigued. Brody drove onto
the tracks and when the
gate arm came down
onto her SUV, she got out
and inspected the vehicle
before getting back in and
driving further onto the
tracks.
Chairman Robert Sumwalt