Mattituck man killed by LIRR train drove around gate, MTA says

A Mattituck man was killed Tuesday when authorities said he drove around a lowered crossing gate and his pickup was struck by a Long Island Rail Road train.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, which investigates accidents involving MTA trains, identified the victim as Frank McBride, 35.

A railroad spokesman, Salvatore Arena, said McBride was taken by Mattituck Fire Department ambulance to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead after the accident, but said he died there of undisclosed injuries.

McBride died at 1:52 p.m., police said.

The accident remains under investigation.

MTA police said the fatal crash occurred shortly after 1:10 p.m., when the westbound train from Greenport to Ronkonkoma struck the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado pickup that had gone around the lowered crossing gate at Elijahs Lane in Mattituck.

The train hit the driver’s side door of the southbound pickup, police said.

The train was carrying four passengers. None were injured.

Photos from the scene showed the smashed pickup in a right-of-way space alongside the tracks.

Two Ronkonkoma line trains were canceled, the railroad said.

With Ellen Yan and Laura Blasey

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”