The family of a woman who drove in front of a Metro-North train — causing a crash that killed 5 commuters and herself — says in a new lawsuit it’s all the state’s fault for not fixing the “dangerous crossing.”
The intersection of the tracks and Commerce Street in Mount Pleasant had bad signage and lighting and a skewed angle which prevented drivers from seeing oncoming trains or even seeing that they were on tracks, the suit claims. The state also sat on $126,000 that the feds had handed over for fixing the crossing for five years even through the intersection at Valhalla was not up to federal standards, said the suit, which was filed by the family of Ellen Brody, who was killed by the commuter train in February of last year.
Ellen BrodyPhoto: AP
“Ellen Brody was a victim of this dangerous crossing just as the people who died on the train were,” said attorney Philip Russotti, who filed the suit on behalf of the family on the first anniversary of the crash. Another 15 people on the train were injured. “This crossing should have been closed years ago,” said Russotti.
Another man, Gerald Dunne, was killed at the same crossing back in 1984.
Defendants in the case include the MTA, Metro-North Railroad, the county of Westchester, the town of Mount Pleasant, and the conductor who was driving the train at the time. The family filed a separate lawsuit against New York state.
The MTA declined to comment on the case, saying it has not yet seen the suit and does not comment on pending litigation.
State transportation officials said on Wednesday that much of upgrades were done before the crash without using the federal money. The fixes included added additional crossing signs and installing sensors that control the traffic lights on the road near the crossing. The state had not yet gotten around to installing flashers at the crossing where the crash happened.
“The NTSB has said the rail crossing functioned as designed,” said state DOT spokesman Gary Holmes, referring to an ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. “Further enhancements at this crossing – and others – are possible based on NTSB recommendations following the final report.”
At first glance I honestly thought that this was just a very stupid decision made by a woman who decided to be impatient and tried to beat the train. Her decision to get out of the car, drive forward into the train was completely inexplicable, in my opinion. Why would you drive further onto the tracks after the gate hits your car? I may sound like callous prick for saying this, but what she did that night was so stupid it defies explanation. However, I have never been in to this railroad crossing before, so I can't judge whether or not her family has any meritorious arguments with regards to the "dangerous" crossing. What I do know, however, is that her family listing the conductor as a defendant is complete and utter bullshit. Basic physics tells us that p=mv, or momentum = mass * velocity. One M7 weighs around 57000kg. We'll make it 60000kg to account for passengers. An entire train would weigh around 480,000kg, at 58mph (25.93m/s), and the momentum of that train would have been aroud 12,446,400kg-m/s. Blaming the conductor for being unable to stop a train with more than 12 million kg-m/s of momentum in 300 feet is frivolous and foolish. There is no way he has any fault in this accident.
What do you guys think? Do you guys think that this was just a very stupid and tragic decision made by the woman or does her family have legit claims?