LIRR service expected to be OK Monday morning after fire

Long Island Rail Road officials said service should be fully restored between Huntington and Hicksville before Monday's commute, after a taxi drove onto the tracks in Syosset Sunday and burst into flames.

The cabdriver, with a female passenger in his taxi, lost control of his Ford Crown Victoria, smashing through a fence and onto the tracks along Jackson Avenue near the Syosset train station around 11:52 a.m., LIRR spokesman Michael Lewi said.

The passenger was taken to Syosset Hospital with minor injuries, said Syosset Fire Department Chief John J. Capobianco.

The car wound up 20 to 30 feet down the track, directly facing a train stopped at the station, then caught on fire, Capobianco said.

Lewi said the train, the 11:36 a.m. from Huntington, had arrived at the station without incident. The car damaged both the eastbound and westbound tracks and the third rail, as well as the signal system at the busy intersection, Lewi said. Buses were ordered to transport stranded passengers.

"Apparently it was driver error," Lewi said. "The crossing gates were down, and the driver drove off the road, through a fence and onto the tracks."

Repairs were completed on the eastbound track by late Sunday afternoon, allowing trains to pass in both directions. Trains operated on an hourly schedule and shared the single line between Huntington and Hicksville. Work was to be completed overnight, Lewi said. "We believe it should not affect the morning commute," he said.

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The cabdriver, identified by police as Louis Pushkin of Long Beach, said he tried to stop the car before reaching the tracks, but that it sped up even after he applied the emergency brake.

He said he pulled his passenger out of the burning vehicle. "We were both very scared and upset," he said.

"It doesn't make any sense," he said. "Rather than drive forward and hit the car in front of me, I pulled off onto the sidewalk, but the car wouldn't stop. It went faster onto the tracks."

The driver, who works for Syosset Taxi, said he had been with the company for five days. Calls to the company's owner were not returned Sunday.

MTA police officers on the scene said they could not confirm the taxi driver's account. Pushkin said he was issued tickets for reckless driving and blocking a rail intersection.