February
10, 2015
A brief
statement released by Westchester County did not specify the cause of death for
any of the victims.
All six of
the people killed in a fiery collision between a commuter train and an SUV in
Valhalla last week suffered blunt-force injuries and burns, a medical examiner
announced Tuesday.
A brief
statement released by Westchester County did not specify the cause of death for
any of the victims. It also did not specify whether the blunt-force injuries
were caused by the impact on the tracks or by the pieces of third rail that
speared into both vehicles in the Feb. 3 accident.
The
collision killed five men on an evening commuter train and a woman whose SUV
was hit by the train at a grade crossing on Commerce Street. A fire erupted,
apparently fueled by the SUV's gasoline, and 12 sections of the railroad's
electrified rail pierced the SUV and the first two train cars.
The
findings were based on autopsies conducted by the office of the county medical
examiner, Dr. Kunjlata Ashar, the county said. The statement said Ashar's final
report and conclusions will not be completed until the National Transportation
Safety Board finishes its investigation several months from now.
The train,
braking hard, hit the SUV at 48 mph and traveled about 1,000 feet before coming
to a stop, the NTSB said. The third rail penetrated the Mercedes SUV and then
the first car of the train, breaking into its 39-foot sections and "coming
in, in, in, in," U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Friday. He said
seeing the burned-out rail car was "like looking into a coffin."
The NTSB
said it would use information from the autopsies and from surviving passengers'
injuries, coupled with a diagram of where people were sitting, to try to
determine how people were killed.
The NTSB is
also asking questions about whether Metro-North's unusual third-rail
arrangement, which involves taking power from the bottom of the rail, led to
the splintering of the rail, which investigators said they had never seen
before.
Another key
question is why the SUV driver, Ellen Brody, was in the path of the train. A
witness said her car was hit by the dropping crossing gate and she then drove
forward and was hit by the train. The NTSB has said the crossing gates and
lights were working properly.