Injured Valley Stream man recalls LIRR crash

Valley Stream resident Rob Fried cautiously boarded a Long Island Rail Road train destined for Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn on Jan. 5 — one day after he was injured in a train car derailment on his morning commute.

“I stayed in my seat until the train came to a complete stop,” Fried said of his post-crash commute.

He said it is typical for people to get up and walk toward the front of the train before it stops at Atlantic Terminal because not all of the train cars meet the platform at the station. Fried said he was surprised that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority did not make any safety announcements in the days after the crash, to remind people to stay seated.

“Nobody on the train ever says to you, ‘Hey, please stay seated until the train comes to a complete stop,’” he said. “Everybody is in such a rush that no one is paying attention to the possibility that something could happen.”

Fried, 38, was diagnosed with whiplash at New York Methodist Hospital following the crash, and said he was also suffering from back and leg pain. More jarring, he said, were the frequent flashbacks he had of the chaos after the moment of impact.

“This was a huge jolt,” he said. “Imagine being on a roller coaster and they brake real hard.”

He said the moment of impact was a blur, but he recalled that many of his fellow passengers were confused and scared. MTA police directed them to medical checkpoints, and Fried said the FDNY set up a command post outside the terminal.

“I can’t stress to you how impressed I was by the FDNY,” he added.

National Transportation Safety Board officials investigating what caused the crash and derailment of the train on the Far Rockaway branch on Jan. 4 said the train was moving at more than 10 mph before the collision — more than twice the 5 mph speed limit.

Investigators said the train headed into the station at 33 mph and reduced speed to 15 mph on its approach, as required. In the last three minutes, however, the train’s speed seesawed between 2 and 10 mph. NTSB investigators said the engineer doesn’t remember the crash, and will be tested for sleep apnea, a chronic condition that can bring on fatigue. The Federal Railroad Administration is also taking part in the probe. 

On Sunday, five senators, led by New York’s Charles Schumer, called for the federal government to require all railroads, including the Long Island Rail Road, to screen train operators for obstructive sleep apnea, and to publicize which railroads do not test their engineers for the disorder. Metro-North, another MTA-run rail system, has since tested its engineers for sleep apnea since the deadly December 2013 derailment in the Bronx in which federal investigators concluded that engineer fatigue caused by the disorder was a factor in that accident.

Senior NTSB investigator Jim Southworth said that the Atlantic Terminal probe would entail reviewing recordings and video of the accident, and interviewing witnesses as well as the three crew members, and was expected to take three to seven days.

According to initial reports, LIRR officials said that at about 8:15 a.m., Train No. 2817, scheduled to depart from Far Rockaway at 7:18 a.m. and due at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, at 8:11 a.m., struck the bumping block. Atlantic Terminal has six tracks and three platforms. The six-car-long train was carrying about 430 passengers as it headed into the terminal on Track 6, and may have been moving faster than 10 mph before it struck the block and crashed into a small office.

In the crash, the lead wheel assembly derailed, along with one other axle. FDNY officials at the scene said that a portion of rail sliced into the bottom of the train, which lifted the wheels off the track. The crash also smashed the train’s doors and shattered windows.

The FDNY reported that 103 people were injured, and that the most severe injury was a broken leg. Officials said that the passengers were getting ready to get off the train and were sent careening through the cars.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo was at the crash scene, and complimented the efforts of the emergency responders. “The response to the accident was fantastic, and I want to thank all the first responders,” he said. “The MTA, the NYPD, the Fire Department — they really did a great job of getting on site.”

This was the second LIRR derailment in less than three months. In October, a commuter train derailed near the New Hyde Park station. That accident injured 33 people.

“There’s a signal system that controls [the train] coming in at limited speeds,” MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast said. “But when you’re getting to the end, it’s the locomotive engineer’s responsibility. And the train’s brakes have to work. All those things have to be looked at in the investigation.”

As of press time, officials said the investigation would continue.