Driver smashes into LIRR gate in Island Park

“Train!” a Metropolitan Transportation Authority maintenance worker shouted to police across train tracks in Island Park near Nassau Lane. Hearing the warning, the MTA officers made their way to the center of Long Beach Road’s southbound lane to impersonate the train gate that sat in pieces at the side of the street.

About an hour earlier, around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, an elderly man driving southbound on Long Beach Road swerved off the road and hit a Long Island Rail Road gate, which was up at the time, according to MTA police on the scene.

The Island Park Fire Department responded to the accident, and the man was transported to an area hospital by a Nassau County ambulance, police said. He was responsive, according to witnesses, but his condition is unknown at this time.

“He just kind of veered off the road and ran into the pole…and jumped the curb,” said Nassau Lane resident Brian Shea, who was in his driveway across the street from the slab of grass where the disabled black Lexus RX350 ended up.

“I didn’t even realize he swerved until I saw him hit the pole,” Shea recalled. “From the angle I was standing at, it looked like he was doing OK.”

Shea said he ran to the car, which had its airbag deployed and was missing a tire. He checked on the driver, who he estimated to be in his 60s, and then rushed to rid the tracks of the decimated train gate as a train approached. It halted as the area was cleared. “We tried to pull it off as best we could, but that thing weighs about a thousand pounds,” Shea added.

“I just heard, bang!” said Andrew Alba, a resident of the nearby Island House whose window faces the tracks. He looked out and saw the disabled SUV and a halted train waiting to pass.

LIRR maintenance workers tended to wiring where the pole no longer was. Later trains passed the intersection at reduced speeds, but were not otherwise interrupted, MTA police said.

The Herald will update this story as more information becomes available.