News

New York

Metro-North train derailment

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Monday announced several initiatives aimed at improving customer and employee safety, including the installation of new speed-control technology. 
The changes at the MTA include the creation of a new chief safety officer senior management position, reporting directly to agency chairman and chief executive Thomas Prendergast. 
In another change, the top safety officials in individual agencies, including the Long Island Rail Road, will now report directly to that agency's president. And a newly formed safety committee will meet publicly each month. 
The changes followed the deadly derailment of a Metro-North Railroad train in the Bronx on Dec. 1. Four people were killed and another 59 were injured in the crash. 
"The safety of our customers and employees is unquestionably the top priority for the MTA, and these steps will make sure this emphasis on safety is built into the operations of every MTA agency," Prendergast said in a statement. 
The MTA also announced that it had finished installing new speed-control technology on 10 major curves and one movable bridge throughout the LIRR and Metro-North systems.

Long Island

LIMETRO25

MTA initiatives focus on Metro-North, LIRR safety

4. NYC Train Derailment /

A spending bill unveiled this week by a bipartisan congressional panel includes $15 million to allow federal railroad officials to hire 45 more inspectors. 
 After a Metro-North commuter train derailed last month in the Bronx, killing four passengers and injuring 59 others, Sens. Charles Schumer (D-New York) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said they pushed for additional funding. They contended the Federal Railway Administration, which inspects railways, was "woefully" underfunded. 
 "Having additional inspectors for our nation's rails will prevent future accidents and make the riding public safer, plain and simple," Schumer said in a statement Tuesday. "We've been underinvesting in our rail safety agency for too long, but with this major funding boost we're well on the way to fixing this problem." 
 The $1.1 trillion spending bill, expected to be voted on at the end of this week, also requires the FRA to present the results of its ongoing investigation into the operation of the Metro-North to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations by March 17, Schumer said. 
 On Dec. 1, the 5:54 a.m. Poughkeepsie train bound for Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan shot off the tracks just north of the Spuyten Duyvil station and skidded to the edge of the Harlem River about 7:20 a.m. 
 Union officials have said the train engineer, William Rockefeller, 45, "nodded" off and failed to slow the train, which investigators said was traveling 82 mph as it entered a sharp curve where the speed limit drops to 30 mph. 
 The deadly derailment caused an estimated $9 million in damage, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which released its preliminary report yesterday but did not say what caused the Dec. 1 crash. 
 The brief report, which reiterates earlier findings, did not mention the engineer dozing off. An agency spokesman said the final report is months away from being completed. 
 Since the derailment, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have said they will step up safety measures wherever possible on the Long Island Rail Road to avoid accidents like the Metro-North derailment. 
 But LIRR officials, who have announced safety initiatives, have no new plans to address a stretch in Suffolk County between Ronkonkoma and Greenport on the LIRR's Main Line that is part of the "dark territory," which makes up a third of the system and has no signals or technology to monitor train speed and operations. 
 Kevin Thompson, an FRA spokesman, said no hiring of inspectors will begin until Congress approves the spending bill and President Barack Obama signs it. 
 Currently, the FRA only inspects 1 percent of the nation's rails, he said. Thompson did not say how many inspectors are on staff or how many inspections the agency would be able to conduct with the additional inspectors.

LIRAIL15

$15 million sought to hire more rail inspectors

derailment - crop

The nation's railroad regulatory agency will install cameras in train operators' cabins nationwide by the end of this year or early 2015 in response to December's deadly Metro-North derailment, according to senators Charles Schumer and Richard Blumenthal.
The plan will place cameras inside operators' cabins to record their actions. Cameras will also be positioned outside the cars to record the trains' travels, Schumer said Sunday.
Both Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains will have cameras installed.
Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Blumenthal (D-Conn.) both said they were pleased the Federal Railroad Administration acted on recommendations first proposed by the National Transportation Safety Board in 2008. The investigation into the Dec. 1 incident, in which four passengers were killed and 67 were injured, is still ongoing.
Officials said that the train's engineer, William Rockefeller, dozed off before coming onto a steep curve in the Bronx.
Schumer, who wrote a letter to the FRA after the crash urging it to move forward on the NTSB recommendations, said the cameras will make sure train operators are working safely.
"Most conductors are good," he said at a news conference Sunday with Blumenthal at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. "But when there are bad apples, you have to find them."
The FRA will hammer out the details of how many cameras will be on each train and will seek input from the public and the train operators' union representatives.
Currently, only Amtrak has video cameras positioned outside cars.
Schumer said the cameras also will deter train operators from engaging in unethical behavior while behind the wheel.
Blumenthal said he expects no hassle from the railroad workers union or the public over the cameras, which will cost in the "tens of millions" of dollars.
Passengers demand safety and would welcome any solution to make sure the Bronx accident never happens again, Blumenthal said.
"I urge that there be no further delay," Blumenthal said. "These rules are long overdue."

NYRAIL13

Federal rail officials to install train cameras

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Long Island Rail Road officials Monday announced safety initiatives to avoid accidents like the Dec. 1 Metro-North derailment that killed four people, but have no new plans to address a stretch in Suffolk County without signals or technology to monitor train speed and operations. 
 The track between Ronkonkoma and Greenport on the LIRR's Main Line is part of the "dark territory" that makes up a third of the system. In those areas, crews rely on a "manual block" strategy in which personnel communicate with each other by phone and radio to make sure two trains are not in the same area at the same time. 
 But two trains, including one carrying about 20 passengers, came within 700 feet of colliding head-on in Bridgehampton on the Montauk Branch in August 2009. 
 "It is just a fact . . . that parts of the system are safer than others," MTA board member Mitchell Pally, of Stony Brook, said at Monday's Manhattan meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board committees -- the first since the Metro-North derailment that also injured 71 in the agency's worst train accident in 22 years. 
 The MTA board last month approved a $400 million contract to install electronic signals between Speonk and Montauk, a stretch also in the "dark territory." The signals are needed to meet a federal mandate for new "positive train control" accident-prevention technology by 2015. 
 The LIRR has maintained that the technology is unnecessary between Ronkonkoma and Greenport because of low train traffic. Weekday ridership between Ronkonkoma and Greenport is about 200 people, officials have said, although usage picks up in the summer. Two eastbound trains arrive at Greenport on weekdays, and three westbound trains depart. 
 MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast said the agency would re-evaluate its position on adding the technology to the Main Line stretch. 
 "We have to make sure that any piece of track that the Long Island Rail Road operates on, or Metro-North, has the requisite piece of protection that our customers expect," he said. 
 Although the federal government has only called for stepped-up safety measures on Metro-North after the Dec. 1 derailment, MTA officials said that, wherever possible, they will take similar steps or additional steps on the LIRR, including expanding the use of crash-prevention technology. 
 "I can tell you, at a personal level for me, you do a lot of soul searching to determine what you can do to prevent a recurrence from happening," Prendergast said. 
 Safety improvements announced Monday include posting train speed limits on signs along tracks and increasing safety audits, "black box" analysis and the use of radar to monitor train crews and speeds. 
 The railroad also will install "alerter" systems in the cabs of 218 cars -- about 20 percent of the LIRR fleet -- that don't have them. The system requires an engineer to press a button every 25 seconds to acknowledge that he or she is alert and in control. 
 The LIRR will also install technology to better enforce speed restrictions at seven areas recently identified as "critical curves." Those locations are in addition to nine track curves where automatic speed control systems have been in place for years to slow down a train if it travels past a transponder faster than it should. 
 Such a system was not in place in the Grand Central Terminal-bound Metro-North train on Dec. 1, when the engineer momentarily lost focus and speeded through a sharp curve near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx at 82 mph -- nearly three times the speed limit. All seven cars on the train came off the tracks. 
 Some of the LIRR's initiatives, such as the new speed limit signs, have already been completed, while others will be in place by the end of next year, officials said. Until then, LIRR president Helena Williams said, engineers have been ordered to reduce speeds through the curves. 
 The safety measures are in addition to others recommended or ordered by the federal government, including creating a system to protect employees who report lax safety practices. 
 LIRR'S SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PLAN 
 Install speed limit signs along major curves in tracks. 
 Expand automatic speed control technology along seven curves where it was not in place, including in Hicksville and Syosset. 
 Increase safety monitoring of trains, including through the use of radar speed enforcement, onboard checks by supervisors, and downloads of train event recorders. 
 Install "alerter" systems in trains without them to help ensure an engineer is awake and in control. 
 Implement a "confidential close call" reporting system to protect workers who speak up about dangerous work situations. 
 Set "safety stand downs," in which employees stop what they're doing to review and discuss safety procedures. 
 Try to expedite the installation of positive train control technology to help prevent crashes. The MTA has applied for a $1 billion federal loan to help pay for the technology.

LIMTA17

LIRR making safety upgrades after Metro-North derailment

liLIRR17

A bipartisan budget deal making its way through Congress should include a $15 million boost in federal transportation safety funding to help prevent tragedies such as the deadly Metro-North train derailment, senators from New York and Connecticut said Sunday.
The Federal Railroad Administration, which inspects railways, is "woefully" underfunded, said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who was joined by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) at a news conference at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.
"Not only is it up to the FRA to inspect track and ensure passenger safety, it's up to them to oversee the MTA and make sure they're doing it," he said. 
The Dec. 1 derailment of a Metro-North train in the Bronx near the Spuyten Duyvil station killed four people and injured dozens. The National Transportation Safety Board found the train was traveling 82 mph around a curve with a speed limit of 30 mph and no alarm was sounded when the engineer failed to slow down.
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found the FRA has the resources to inspect only 1 percent of the nation's railways each year, Schumer and Blumenthal said.
FRA spokesman Kevin F. Thompson said rail inspections are just one way to ensure safety. The agency also conducts audits, issues reports and advances risk-reduction programs and technology, he said. "Altogether, our approach . . . helped make 2012 the safest year in rail history, with accidents down 43 percent over the past decade," Thompson said in a statement, adding that the FRA appreciates the senators' support for more funds. 
In 2013, the FRA's safety and operations budget was $170 million after the sequester cuts. The senators want $15 million more in the 2014 budget.
Increased funds would allow the FRA to bring on 45 additional inspectors, the senators said. 
Only a portion of the funds would go toward New York, and the senators did not specify how much. 
The House last week passed a two-year bipartisan budget deal that sets discretionary spending at more than $1 trillion. The Senate is set to take up the deal Tuesday.
The FRA Monday begins Operation Deep Dive, a 60-day safety assessment of Metro-North in response to the Bronx crash. The agency will probe track and signal maintenance, mechanical and transportation department communication, and locomotive engineer oversight, among other areas.
MTA spokesman Salvatore Arena said Sunday the agency shares the senators' "concerns about rail safety and are implementing a number of new safety measures in the wake of the Metro-North derailment."
The MTA since the Bronx accident has installed protections at the Spuyten Duyvil curve to automatically apply the train's emergency brakes if the speed is not lowered. 
It is developing new protections to automatically enforce speed restrictions at four other "critical" curves by March. The four critical curves are at Yonkers on the Hudson Line, White Plains on the Harlem Line, and Port Chester and Bridgeport on the New Haven Line.

Transportation

NYFRA16

Senators call for more transportation safety funds

nySCHUMER--cropped

The deadly derailment of a Metro-North Railroad train has reignited a decades-old debate on how to combat fatigue among locomotive engineers. 
 Experts said long hours, routine scenery and boredom can make an engineer lose focus and put the lives of train passengers and crew members in danger. 
 Union officials have said Metro-North engineer William Rockefeller dozed off during an early morning run south through the Bronx on Dec. 1, failing to slow the train from its 82-mph speed as it entered a sharp curve where the speed limit drops to 30 mph. The train -- seven passenger cars being pushed by a locomotive -- derailed, killing four people and injuring 71. 
 "You have to be perfect from the minute you step onto that train until the minute you step off," said David Rangel, deputy director of the Modoc Academy, an engineer-training facility in Marion, Ill. 
 Although the National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the derailment, officials have said evidence points to fatigue -- a common factor in transportation accidents and one that some critics say has not been appropriately addressed in the railroad industry. 
 The 106-year-old federal Hours of Service Act dictates that engineers can work up to 11 hours and 59 minutes consecutively before requiring eight hours off. That does not account for commuting, socializing and other demands on their time. After working 12 hours or more, the law states, engineers require 10 hours off. 
 Michael Quinn, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Local 269, the union representing Long Island Rail Road engineers, said the law is usually interpreted to count only consecutive hours operating a train. LIRR engineers can work as many as 14 days in a row before being required to take two days off, he said. 
 "Engineers on the LIRR are generally given ample time to rest between shifts," Quinn said. 
 Critics say the regulations are outdated and don't reflect newer research on sleep requirements and natural rest patterns. The Federal Railroad Administration over the years has lobbied for increased rest requirements and noted in a February report that fatigue can increase the likelihood of a train accident caused by human error by as much as 65 percent. 
 "The job itself, the actual running of the train, is mostly enjoyable. But then there's also a lot of boredom," said John Balderucci, a former Metro-North engineer who retired in 2010 after 23 years. "The rule book says 'a constant, vigilant lookout ahead.' You can't daydream. You can't do anything. But the problem is that it becomes so monotonous." 
 Balderucci said adequate rest can be especially elusive for engineers with no seniority who alternate beween day and night shifts. 
 Efforts to further regulate engineer rest have faced resistance from railroad labor and trade organizations, whose workers stand to lose money if forced to work fewer hours. Both Metro-North and LIRR engineers make a top annual base salary of about $77,000 a year, not including overtime and work rule payments. 
 In a 2005 report, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen supported a comprehensive plan to address fatigue, but noted that "for labor, a tension exists between earning potential and fatigue from overworking." 
 In 2008, the Federal Railroad Administration made some changes to the Hours of Service regulations to address the fatigue issue, including requiring railroads to eliminate schedules that posed higher risks of engineer fatigue. 
 But Patrick Sherry, co-director of the National Center for Intermodal Transportation at Mississippi State University, said more could be done. He said he would like to see railroads institute "countermeasures" to sleepiness among engineers, including more opportunities to nap at work, along with educational programs on the effects of fatigue. 
 Brian Heikkila, a former freight and passenger locomotive engineer and trainer, said government regulations aren't a panacea for tired engineers. 
 "It's up to the individual to see if he is fit for duty when reporting," said Heikkila, of Plains, Mont. 
 The MTA has instituted several policies in recent years aimed at keeping engineers' eyes on the rails, including a ban on cellphones and electronic devices, and a requirement that an engineer's cab door remain closed while a train is operating. 
 Engineers also undergo physical examinations every two years, MTA officials said. 
 On Sunday, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called on the Federal Railroad Administration to require cameras inside engineers' cabs, in part to monitor their behavior. 
 Quinn, the LIRR union leader, said engineers, who undergo about a year of training before starting, also take a five-day "refresher test" every other year to recertify their competence. He said he'd like to see even more engineer training. For Metro North, the recertification is every three years, said MTA spokesman Sal Arena. 
 Former LIRR locomotive engineer Robert Haragsim, who retired in 1992 after 25 years, said keeping focus could be a struggle, especially when working seven days a week and making the same run back and forth several times in a single shift. 
 "Sometimes your mind wanders a little, but because the job is repetitive, you do the same thing every day," said Haragsim, 73, who lives in Pompano Beach, Fla. "It's like when you're driving a car for a long time." 
 He added, "You don't have somebody to take the wheel after a while. Your mind does drift."

LIENGI08

Metro-North derailment reignites engineer fatigue debate

nyTRAIN cropped

Less than a week after a fatal accident in the Bronx, federal railroad officials Friday ordered Metro-North to immediately keep two qualified operators at the controls of commuter trains in places where speeds change by 20 mph or more.
The Federal Railroad Administration also ordered Metro-North Railroad to identify modifications that it can make to its automated train control and speed warning systems to help avoid human failure of train engineers, similar to what caused Sunday's derailment that killed four and injured scores of passengers.
"Safety is our highest priority, and we must do everything we can to learn from this tragic crash and help prevent future derailments," U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. "While we assist the National Transportation Safety Board in carrying out its investigation, this emergency order will help ensure that other Metro-North trains travel at appropriate, safe speeds."
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Transporation Authority said that Metro-North "will of course comply with whatever requirements the FRA directs us to follow."
The agency's orders do not apply to the Long Island Rail Road, the spokesman said. 
A federal official who didn't want to be named said earlier this week the federal agency sent a letter to the MTA "encouraging it" to launch a "safety stand-down," or safety sessions, with all employees and to fully implement a confidential close-call reporting system, which allows railroad employees to report without fear of reprisal any close calls or near-miss incidents that could have resulted in an accident. 
In a letter Friday to MTA chairman Thomas J. Prendergast, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the agency should start taking steps to "expedite speed control for vulnerable track locations across the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road system." Cuomo's letter also asked the agency to conduct regular safety stand-downs with employees to "reinforce a safety culture."
While the NTSB probe of the crash remains ongoing, Cuomo wrote, reports "have now made clear that the actions of Engineer William Rockefeller were the initiating cause of this tragic accident."
"The train's speed, which Mr. Rockefeller controlled, was over 50 mph above the maximum allowed speed at the time of derailment," Cuomo said in his letter, referring to the 82 mph investigators said the train was traveling in the posted 30-mph zone.
Rockefeller, who survived the derailment, has been suspended without pay. Union and investigative sources said that Rockefeller nodded off just before the derailment north of the Spuyten Duyvil station.
As of late Friday, the MTA had not responded to Cuomo's letter to Prendergast.
Also Friday, funerals were held for two victims.
An Irish pipe solo was played at the Cold Spring funeral for Jim Lovell, the sound and lighting expert who was killed while heading to work on the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. He had worked on NBC's "Today Show" for the past 20 years. 
The funeral for Donna Smith was held in Newburgh. The paralegal was active in her church and civic groups and was headed to Manhattan to hear her sister sing Handel's "Messiah" with a choral group.
A funeral for Kisook Ahn will be held Saturday at St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church, 58-02 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside, Queens, at 10:30 a.m. The Korean immigrant, a registered nurse, was returning home from her job at the Sunshine Children's Home and Rehab Center in Ossining. 
The fourth victim, James Ferrari of Montrose, was buried Thursday. With AP

NYTRAI07

Agency orders 2 operators on Metro-North trains

NYC Train Derailment-Funeral cropped

The commuter train that derailed in the Bronx on Sunday was equipped with a safety system designed to keep the engineer alert, but it wasn't installed in the cab from which he was controlling the train, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority confirmed Thursday.
Instead, the device was in the cab at the other end of the train.
The engineer, William Rockefeller, who drove the Metro-North Railroad train that went off the rails, leaving four passengers dead, experienced a momentary loss of awareness as he sped toward a curve at 82 mph in a 30-mph zone, according to his lawyer, a union representative and officials.
The safety system, known as an alerter, sounds an alarm when an engineer remains idle for 25 seconds while the train is in motion, said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the MTA. The engineer has 15 seconds to respond to the alarm by hitting a button. If the engineer fails to do so within that time, the system automatically applies the brakes.
"The alerter requires the engineer to check in to ensure that he is awake and alert," said Donovan. The system knows when the engineer is engaged if he moves the throttle or controller slightly, he said.
The 5:54 a.m. Poughkeepsie train bound for Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan shot off the tracks just north of the Spuyten Duyvil station and skidded to the edge of the Harlem River about 7:20 a.m. Sunday. In addition to those killed, 63 others were injured.
The derailed train, a diesel locomotive, was set up in a push-pull configuration, Donovan said. When the train headed north it was pulled by the locomotive and the engineer would have been in the cab with the alerter. When it headed south, it was pushed by the locomotive and the engineer was in the opposite end.
Donovan noted that the cab in which Rockefeller was operating was equipped with another type of safety feature known as "dead man's pedal" designed to slow the train and eventually bring it to a stop if the operator loses consciousness.
The alerter has been installed in the new electric trains as mandated by the federal government in 2002, Donovan said. Long Island Rail Road trains, which consist of mostly M-7 cars, he said, have alerters at both ends.
Federal officials have ordered the MTA to do more to improve safety, including creating a system whereby employees can report problems without fear of retribution.
This week, the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the cause of the crash, said the train's brakes or rail signals were functioning properly, and alcohol tests on Rockefeller and crew members were negative.
Meanwhile, the MTA has received six notices of claims -- the first step in filing a lawsuit against a governmental entity -- from riders of the ill-fated train, said Donovan.

NYTRAI06

Safety system 'alerter' not in derailed train's engineer cab

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As investigators continue to probe the cause of the deadly Metro-North crash Sunday in the Bronx, the brother and brother-in-law of one of the four passengers killed in the derailment arrived Wednesday at Kennedy Airport on a flight from Seoul, South Korea. 
 Jin-Won Ahn, brother of victim Kisook Ahn, 35, of Woodside and brother-in-law Eui-Ho Kim were met by a representative of the South Korean consulate at the Korean Air Terminal at 10:20 a.m. As members of the media, most from the Korean press, looked on, the two men, dressed casually, said little. 
 An interpreter told reporters the two were "too sad to talk," but said the men were making arrangements for a funeral and church service in New York. 
 According to Sheldon Meikle, director of Perfect Choice Staffing, which sponsored Ahn through its international staffing division in Woodbury, Ahn was a member of the congregation at St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Woodside. 
 Ahn was returning home from a 1 1/1/2-hour shift as a registered nurse at the Sunshine Children's Home and Rehab Center in Ossining, a pediatric residential facility that treats severely ill children, when she was killed, said Sunshine administrator Linda Mosiello. 
 "She was committed to making them smile," Mosiello said. "She had a very warm, loving compassionate way about her." 
 Meikle, whose agency recruited Ahn to come to the United States, said she was a registered nurse when she arrived in the country, having received a degree at Sungshin University in Seoul. 
 Ahn then entered an accelerated one-year nursing program at Lehman College and received a bachelor's degree. 
 After being granted a one-year work permit, Meikle said, Ahn entered and later graduated from a two-year master's degree program at Lehman, becoming a family nurse practitioner. 
 She graduated from that program in fall 2012, he said. 
 Officials said Wednesday that family and friends of Ahn will be seeking donations to help with funeral costs. 
 Meanwhile, a memorial service at Lehman is in the planning stages, officials said. 
 "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Kisook Ahn," Lehman president Ricardo Fernandez said Wednesday. 
 With John Valenti

NYAHN05

Family of Metro-North victim Kisook Ahn arrives

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Alarmed over a string of accidents on the Metro-North Railroad, including the one on Sunday that killed four people, federal officials have ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to immediately establish a system allowing employees to report potentially dangerous conditions without retribution. 
 In a sternly worded letter, Joseph C. Szabo, chief of the Federal Railroad Administration, the agency that regulates the commuter rail, told MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast that federal officials have "serious concerns" over the four Metro-North accidents since May, in which a total of five people were killed and 129 injured. 
 "The specific causes of each of these recent accidents may vary, but regardless of the reasons, 4 serious accidents in less than 7 months is simply unacceptable," Szabo said in the Dec. 3 letter. 
 The letter was written two days after the Metro-North Hudson commuter-line train, traveling at 82 mph in a 30-mph zone careened off the tracks just north of the Spuyten Duyvil station and skidded to the edge of the Harlem River about 7:20 a.m. Sunday. 
 The engineer, William Rockefeller, "nodded" off moments before the derailing, Anthony Bottalico, of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, said Tuesday. Rockefeller has been suspended without pay. 
 Full service on the Metro-North Hudson line resumed Wednesday, the MTA said. 
 Adam Lisberg, an MTA spokesman, said the authority will put in place the confidential close-call reporting system, commonly referred to as C3RS, throughout Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road. 
 That system, federal officials said, is in place on other rail lines across the country and has "proven effective" in identifying safety issues and reducing injuries and accidents. 
 The MTA, which is evaluating several safety improvements, is still deciding on what form the system will take. 
 On May 17, two Metro-North trains on the New Haven line collided during evening rush hour after one derailed near Fairfield, Conn. At least 70 people were injured. Less than two weeks later, on May 28, a track foreman was struck and killed in West Haven, Conn. On July 18, a CSX freight train derailed near where the Metro-North train left the tracks on Sunday. 
 "Not only have some of these incidents had tragic and catastrophic consequences, they have also eroded the public's confidence in the safety of the railroad transportation system," said Szabo, who demanded the MTA reply by Friday. 
 While investigators continue to probe the cause of the deadly crash, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo Thursday said he supports a high-tech system that would automatically stop runaway trains, referred to as positive train-control system. 
 "Those look like the way of the future. That's what we are working toward," Cuomo said on a public-radio show.

NYTRAI05

Feds order MTA to create employee reporting system, improve safety

NYTRAIN /

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants its workers to drop what they're doing and think of ways to do their jobs more safely.
The MTA Tuesday announced plans for a "safety stand-down" across its transit agencies that would require workers to temporarily halt operations and use the time to consider safety practices.
An MTA source said workers will be asked to "take a fresh look at what they do, discuss how they do it, look for ways to improve safety, and reinforce that their job isn't just to follow the rules, but to operate with safety as their top priority at all times."
"This is to reinforce culture, not just the rule book," the source said.
MTA officials said the stand-down at its various agencies, including Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road, would begin later this week.
In a letter sent yesterday to the MTA, Joseph Szabo, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, called such a stand-down "a visible first step to restoring public and employee confidence," but said more is needed.
He called for the immediate implementation of a "confidential close call reporting system" in the MTA that would protect whistle-blowers from disciplinary action if they report potentially dangerous conditions.
Szabo said Sunday's fatal derailment of a Metro-North train in the Bronx -- the fourth of an MTA train in seven months -- is "simply unacceptable."
"We support any initiative to operate trains at a safe speed on the LIRR," said Michael Quinn, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Local 269, which represents LIRR engineers.
The effort follows Sunday's derailment of a Metro-North train in the Bronx, killing four passengers and injuring dozens more. 
The derailment killed four passengers, and federal investigators say the train was traveling at 82 mph where the limit was 30 mph.
"I've spoken to the head of the MTA today, and they're going to be implementing additional safety procedures in the wake of this," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Tuesday, adding that he would still feel safe on a Metro-North train.
"This was truly an extraordinary, exceptional situation," he said. 
Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) who chairs the state Senate Transportation Committee, Tuesday called on the MTA to expedite plans to install a new accident-prevention technology on Metro-North and the LIRR.
The MTA has said it does not think it will meet a federal deadline to have the positive train control system in place by December 2015.
But Fuschillo said he wants it up and running sooner.
In a statement, the MTA said the size and complexity of its system make the 2015 deadline difficult to meet, but it "will continue its efforts to install PTC as quickly as possible. "

NYMTA04

MTA tells workers to examine job safety

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; An Editor’s Note published July 12, 2017, about Kevin Deutsch’s reporting appears at the end of this story. 
Investigators in the Bronx train derailment are poring over engineer William Rockefeller's every move before the crash -- from his breakfast choice that morning to his actions seconds before the cars left the track. 
Among the many mysteries investigators hope to solve is a crucial question: Why was the train barreling down the tracks at 82 mph -- almost triple the 30-mph speed limit in that area -- before it left the curved stretch of track? 
Investigators interviewed Rockefeller Monday and will continue speaking with him over the next few days as they pursue answers. 
A law enforcement source said Rockefeller's statements would be compared with information from the train's data recorders. 
"The data tells the story of how this happened," said the source. "It corroborates or debunks." 
Investigators are looking at the 20-year MTA veteran's training and his safety record. They want to know how much sleep he got and the last time he had used his cellphone, which they are examining. 
Rockefeller, 46, was tested for drugs and alcohol after the accident, but results are not yet available, said National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener. 
To his friends and colleagues, Rockefeller is known as someone who loves his work driving trains. He has a passion for railroads, their history and the safest way to operate them, said Donald Stone, a friend and neighbor of Rockefeller in upstate Germantown. 
"Bill is a true professional who knows those trains better than anyone," Stone said. "He's as good as they come -- a railroad history buff and a guy who's big on safety." 
Anthony Bottalico, executive director of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, Rockefeller's union, said the 11-year veteran engineer "is totally traumatized by everything that has happened," but is cooperating fully with investigators. 
"He's a sincere human being with an impeccable record, that I know of," Bottalico said. "He's diligent and competent." 
Neighbors in Rockefeller's Germantown neighborhood described him as a car and motorcycle buff who loved tinkering with engines and other machinery. 
"He loved looking at how things work and what makes them go," said neighbor Brian Costello, 47. 
"He's got an engineer's brain. . . . We're just hoping he comes out of this OK, because there's been enough tragedy already," he added. 
Editor’s note: Newsday undertook an extensive, four-month review of reporting by Kevin Deutsch, who covered law enforcement from April 2012 to September 2016. 
The review of the former Newsday reporter’s work began after The Baltimore Sun this year reported that law enforcement and other officials questioned the veracity of Deutsch’s nonfiction book “Pill City” about Baltimore’s drug trade. In addition, questions arose about individuals named in Newsday stories by Deutsch. Book publisher St. Martin’s Press and Deutsch have said they stand behind the book. 
We are dedicated to accurate, factual reporting, to the highest journalistic standards and to maintaining our credibility with Newsday readers. We also are committed to being accountable to our readers. Newsday undertook the detailed review in that spirit and because of the concerns that were raised. 
In late February, as our review was under way, The New York Times reported in an editor’s note that The Times “had been unable to locate or confirm the existence of two people who were named and quoted” in a Dec. 29, 2016, freelance article written by Deutsch. Deutsch “maintains that the interviews and the descriptions are accurate,” The Times wrote. 
Newsday reviewed 600 stories with reporting by Deutsch. We contacted officials in the police departments regularly involved in Deutsch’s coverage. They said they had not had problems with his work. We then focused our research and reporting on individuals who, as described in the stories, would not be considered officials, or well-known, public figures. 
The review found 77 stories with 109 individuals from Deutsch’s reporting whom Newsday could not locate. The main points of the stories were not affected. While two stories about the Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen were based on sources Newsday could not locate, other media reported the main points of those stories but with attribution from different sources. In this story, Newsday could not locate: Donald Stone and Brian Costello. Newsday is attaching an editor’s note to each story online that contains individuals we cannot locate. 
Here’s how Newsday conducted the review: 
Researchers and reporters searched local and national public records, sites providing nationwide people searches, databases of business, real estate and conviction records, social media sites including Facebook, LinkedIn and Ancestry.com and nationwide news archives. They searched potential alternate spellings and other name variations. Their reporting followed potential leads they found through research, within stories and in information shared by Deutsch during the review. 
Finding people after publication, in some cases years later, can be difficult because of changes in residence, circumstance and contact information. Some may not have given their real names. 
On the law enforcement beat, reporters may encounter people who lead lives that are not reflected in public records or other sources of information that would help locate them. It is possible that some on our list were difficult to find or reluctant to respond to our review because they are undocumented immigrants, those battling or recovering from addiction or people involved in or around illegal activity. 
Some on our list were described discussing crimes in their neighborhoods, and others as relatives, friends or neighbors of victims or as individuals living near or knowing those accused of crimes. 
Others we have not been able to locate, though, are described as bystanders, neighbors, spectators, relatives of drug victims, witnesses to news events or related in some way to people in the news. Still others are described in stories as people actively engaged in public issues, such as activists, protesters and marchers. Many individuals on the list are described as local. 
Deutsch said in email exchanges with Newsday that “I have no doubt about the veracity of the claims of the sources I quoted.” He also said, “Not a single public official, source, or other interviewee has raised any issues with even one of these stories.” 
“It's impossible for any reporter to know whether the name given to him by interviewees on the street--or those reached briefly by phone or email-- is that person's full and legal name, rather than an alias or variation of their real name (maiden names and certain common nicknames/abbreviations for first names are often published by newspapers, including Newsday.). But every one of the names on Newsday’s list was the name given to me by that interview subject, verbatim.” 
During the four months of our review, Newsday shared questions and updates with Deutsch as we progressed in the search for individuals we could not locate. We requested notes and contact information. Deutsch sent us notes he said represented all individuals we were unable to locate and responded over the course of the review by email, sharing information he said was from his recollection and notes. 
Reporters followed up on all information shared by Deutsch. He did not provide contact information for those on our list. Newsday reporters and editors sought unsuccessfully several times to meet with Deutsch to discuss his reporting and to review his notes together to ensure we were not missing contact information or other details that might help locate individuals. Deutsch maintained that the notes he shared “serve as evidence of interviews” with each source. 
Deutsch said he kept contact information in a Rolodex he left behind at Newsday’s main office and in a company-issued cellphone he returned within a week after resigning on Sept. 6, 2016. Editorial staff did not find a Rolodex or other notes at our office, but found notes left at Newsday’s desk at a courthouse pressroom where he worked. We shared them with Deutsch and he confirmed they were his. As per company policy, the contents of the cellphone had been deleted immediately after Deutsch returned it to Newsday. 
Maintaining the trust of our readers is essential to our mission. If we are able subsequently to locate any individuals, we will update our stories.

EDITORSNOTEKD

Train engineer's actions checked for derailment clues

An accident-prevention system required by Congress but resisted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would stop a train from speeding through a sharp curve and potentially derailing, experts said. 
 After years of rejecting the need for the system known as Positive Train Control, or PTC, the MTA last month approved a $400 million contract to install the systems on Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road. The agency had unsuccessfully sought an exemption from the 2008 federal law requiring such a system. The MTA is still pursuing an extension of the 2015 deadline to have it in place. 
 Positive Train Control uses GPS and Wi-Fi technology. If a transponder installed on the tracks detects a train is going too fast, it automatically slows or stop the train. The federal mandate came after a 2008 commuter train and freight train collision in Los Angeles that killed 25 people. 
 LIRR president Helena Williams has said that while she thinks the MTA should be given more time to properly implement PTC, she is now sold on its benefits. 
 "I absolutely recognize that there are benefits to PTC," Williams said last month. "The wide scale launching of it is unproven, but the technology, we know, will work." 
 And it would have stopped the Metro-North train from entering the sharp curve north of the Spuyten Duyvil station at a dangerous speed, said David Rangel, founder of the Modoc Railroad Academy in Marion, Ill., an engineer-training facility. 
 "It would have taken control away from the locomotive engineer," Rangel said. "It's the automatic pilot of the railroad." 
 Earl Weener, the National Transportation Safety Board member leading the Metro-North investigation, said Monday that the train was traveling at 82 mph as it entered the curve where the speed limit drops to 30 mph from 75. 
 PTC would prevent "derailments caused by excessive speed," the Association of American Railroads, a trade group, reported, but cautioned that several challenges remain, including installing 20,000 antennas along tracks around the country and finding a way to make such a system operable among different railroads. 
 "The bottom line is everyone is doing all they can to implement this," association spokeswoman Holly Arthur said. 
 The MTA had argued that the 1920s-era crash prevention technology already on its railroads, known as automatic speed control, was sufficient to avoid accidents caused by speeding trains. That system similarly detects if a train has violated a speed signal. It will slow a train to about 15 miles per hour but will not stop it. 
 MTA officials would not say if the automatic speed control system was operating in the Metro-North train that derailed Sunday, killing four people and injuring 63. 
 Michael Quinn, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Local 269, the union representing LIRR engineers, said that while he believes the existing brake backup system is "trustworthy," he supports the implementation of PTC. 
 "I think any technology that you can use that will . . . prevent human error is a good system," he said.

NYBRAK03

Speed-control system could stop train derailments, experts say

nytrai03 -- cropped

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been fielding questions about his whereabouts during the immediate aftermath of the Metro-North derailment that killed four and injured 63. 
 The mayor wasn't seen publicly Sunday until he visited victims at St. Barnabas Hospital at night. The Wall Street Journal has reported he was at his Bermuda home golfing during the rescue effort. 
 Asked why he wasn't at the scene, Bloomberg said at the hospital: "What can I do? I'm not a professional firefighter or a police officer. There's nothing I can do." 
 And then Monday, at a City Hall event, he said: "I was in constant communications with my commissioners, who were there to do the job. They're supposed to show up and they're supposed to do it, and that's exactly what they did." 
 Media reports say he also declined to specify where he was early Sunday, saying only: "You just have to check the public schedule for where I am at any point in time, and it will certainly tell you anything that's germane to the job." 
 The mayor came under fire during the 2010 Christmas blizzard for failing to appear during the first 24 hours of the storm. 
 Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio wasn't on the scene but said he was in contact with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. Without criticizing Bloomberg, he told reporters: "My instinct on these things is to be present even if the city is not the lead."

NYMIKE03

Bloomberg addresses absence from derailment scene

bloomberg -- cropped

They were hard workers who often gave of themselves. 
 James Ferrari was bound for his six-days-a-week post, nurse Kisook Ahn was heading home after a 121/2-hour shift, Donna Smith had two jobs to sock away retirement money and James Lovell liked to write outside of his sound and lighting jobs. 
 They were the four who died in Sunday's Metro-North train crash in the Bronx. 
 Even though he had only one day a week off, Ferrari, 59, of Montrose, found time to help friends outside his job as the superintendent of a Manhattan office building, said friend Renata Martello, 31, of Port Chester. 
 Last summer, when Martello's sink blew up around 10 p.m., she called Ferrari. 
 "He and his wife drove 20 to 25 minutes just to fix my sink," she said. "Anything I needed, I just called and he came." 
 On Sunday morning, Ferrari was on his way to 53rd Street and Madison Avenue, a Sunday routine for a job he held for 25 years, Martello said. 
 Martello, who answered the phone at Ferrari's home, said he was a devoted husband to his wife, Fracisleide, and a devoted father to his college-age daughter, Rebecca, both of whom were too distraught to comment. 
 It's also been hard for friends of Ahn, whose smiles and kindness belied her "tough life" of college study and work in a culture far from her native Korea. 
 Ahn, 35, had just finished a 121/2-hour shift as a registered nurse at the Sunshine Children's Home and Rehab Center in Ossining, a pediatric residential facility that treats severely ill children, said Linda Mosiello, Sunshine's administrator. 
 "She was committed to making them smile," Mosiello said. "She had a very warm, loving compassionate way about her." 
 She started at the center in 2010 and had been recruited to work in the United States by Perfect Choice Staffing, a Woodbury-based health care staffing agency, said Mosiello. 
 Myung Cho, president of the Greater New York Korean Nurses Association, said the nurse often volunteered at events. 
 Ahn was close to getting a permanent residency card to live in a country where she faced cultural barriers, Cho said, adding, "Her life was very tough." 
 Like Ahn, Smith, 54, of Newburgh relied mostly on herself. The paralegal, who lived alone, also prepared returns during tax season to earn money. 
 Smith was on the train with her younger sister Linda, whose choral group was holding its annual recital in Manhattan. 
 Linda Smith, 45, walked away with bruises but lost a best friend, their uncle said. 
 "They did many things together, participating in cancer walks, Habitat for Humanity, Girl Scouts," said Charles Hahn, 78, their maternal uncle. "About the only way they would have been closer is if they were twins." 
 Attorney Maureen Crush said Smith "was our first hire" after starting a firm with other lawyers about two years ago. "She has all sorts of great skill sets -- a hardworking personality." 
 Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring, was also bound for Manhattan to work on the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, which is being lit Wednesday. 
 His wife, Nancy Montgomery, told CNN: "He was pure goodness. . . . I want people to know how good Jim was." 
 With Ellen Yan 
 and Maria Alvarez

NYVICS03

4 victims shared work ethic, good hearts

17 -- APTOPIX NYC Train Derailment /ao

Now the question is why? 
 Why did a Sunday morning Metro-North train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Terminal roar into one of the system's most challenging curves at 82 miles per hour -- at a place where the Hudson River lies hard to the right, the Harlem River looms ahead and the speed limit is 30 mph? 
 Monday National Transportation Safety Board investigators provided details about the frightful speed. A preliminary investigation found no anomalies in the train's brakes. Yet the eight-car train became a runaway. 
 So the answer must lie either in human error, an undetected mechanical error, or track conditions. It's too soon to draw conclusions. 
 Here is what we know, and what we need to know: 
 William Rockefeller, the train's operator, has been described as a skilled and reliable engineer with an "impeccable" work record. 
 The NTSB says the train was moving nearly three times the speed limit into a dangerous curve and that Rockefeller hit the brakes just six seconds before the locomotive stopped moving. The front of the train flew off the tracks, winding up just a few feet short of the Harlem River. 
 Is the leftward curve toward the Spuyten Duyvil station too sharp for trains to safely handle? That's unlikely. This is a turn that has been there for decades and trains negotiate it every day. 
 Will the train's black boxes reveal some mechanical breakdown, such as equipment failure, as investigators analyze their contents? 
 Did the train have any mechanical controls that could have overridden a mistake by the operator? If not, why not? 
 Would the federally mandated positive train control system, coming by 2015, have made a difference? 
 There's much to be learned about safety on the rails. Without answers the confidence of the riding public will remain shaken.

Opinion

VPRAPE03

Editorial: What we still don't know about the MTA crash

The Metro-North train that derailed in the Bronx Sunday morning roared south at 82 mph into a treacherous curve where the speed limit drops to 30, officials said Monday.
A preliminary analysis of the two "event recorders" shows the seven-car train being pushed by a locomotive was traveling at 60 mph two minutes before the crash, but sped up to 82 mph as it went into the curve, National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said in a news conference.
The brakes were applied about five seconds before the 5:54 a.m. train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station stopped moving at 7:20 a.m. Cars derailed about 100 feet north of the Spuyten Duyvil station -- ejecting some passengers and nearly plunging into the Harlem River, Weener said. Four people died and 63 were injured.
Using the brakes at that time was "very late in the game" to try to slow down for the curve, said Weener, who is leading the investigation. The train made nine stops before the derailment and there were no problems with the brakes at those times, he said.
Why the train was going faster than the 70 mph limit before the curve is "the question we need to answer," Weener said.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, said in a statement Monday night that the "NTSB's finding that the train was traveling more than double the set speed limit makes clear that, as we suspected, extreme speed was a central cause of this crash."
He said his administration would work closely with investigators and "make sure that any responsible parties are held accountable."
The Bronx district attorney's office, NYPD and MTA Police have opened separate criminal investigations into the derailment, a law enforcement source said.
This is routinely done in fatal transit accidents in case district attorney officials determine a crime was committed, the source said. The NTSB cannot file criminal charges. 
The source said subpoenas have been issued for the train driver's cellphone records, blood samples, drug and alcohol test results and other evidence.
District attorney's spokesman Steve Reed would not confirm a criminal probe, saying "we're monitoring the investigation by the NTSB and we are part of several agencies involved."
Weener said he could not yet report whether human error or mechanical failure caused the train to derail.
Investigators are still gathering and assessing data, including footage from a surveillance camera that has been sent to a lab in Washington, D.C., to be enhanced. The video, provided by the MTA, was taken from a nearby bridge and shows "flashes followed by a cloud of dust" as the train hit the electrified third rail, Weener said.
Train operator William Rockefeller, 46, of Germantown, told first responders he had applied the brakes but they did not work, according to the law enforcement source.
Rockefeller said the train had reached an excessive speed going into the turn, the source said. After the brakes did not work, he tried to "dump" them, which is similar to pulling a car's emergency brake, the source said.
Weener said Rockefeller had been interviewed, but declined to reveal what he told investigators, who plan to talk to other crew members in the coming days. NTSB officials will continue their investigation in New York for several more days, then return to Washington to analyze what they found. A final report could take as much as a year to complete, Weener said.
The four people killed were Donna L. Smith, 54, a paralegal from Newburgh; James G. Lovell, 58, a network television technician from Cold Spring; James M. Ferrari, 59, of Montrose; and Ahn Kisook, 35, a pediatric nurse from Queens.
Investigators found Rockefeller's cellphone, which will undergo routine forensic examining, Weener said. Results of drug and alcohol testing are not complete, he said.
Data from the recorders revealed the throttle went idle about six seconds before the locomotive stopped and the brake pressure fell to zero five seconds before.
Brake air pressure suddenly dropping to zero would indicate that the engineer applied the emergency brakes, but it would have been too late, said David Rangel, founder of the Modoc Railroad Academy, which trains engineers, in Marion, Ill. The momentum of the train would have caused it to continue sliding and skidding at a high speed through the curve, he said.
"If he dumps the brakes, that tells me it's an emergency situation, a crisis situation," Rangel said. "Any modulation of the brakes or tapping of the brakes is not going to be enough."
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday that engineers are required to test a train's brake system before beginning a run.
Anthony Bottalico, head of the union representing the Metro-North crew, said Monday the four employees who were on the train are cooperating with investigators.
Bottalico called Rockefeller diligent and competent, and said he was traumatized by the derailment. He had been treated and released Sunday from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. 
An assistant conductor in the front of the train suffered an eye injury and broken collarbone, Bottalico said, and the other two crew members were less seriously banged up.
The NTSB has released the track to Metro-North, but is still inspecting the train cars, which will be moved to a secure facility for further testing.Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who attended yesterdayMonday's briefing, called the train's speed "scary."
"It sort of takes your breath away," he said. "For a train to be going 82 miles an hour around the curve is just a frightening thought."

NYTRAI03

NTSB: Derailed Metro-North train was going 82 mph

The physical wounds suffered by those injured in Sunday morning's deadly Metro-North derailment in the Bronx were still being addressed Monday.
But Dr. David Listman, the emergency room director at St. Barnabas Hospital, said the victims also face the prospect of mental anguish and trauma.
"People are still in the acute state of coming to grips with the injuries and the accident," Listman said. "I think for a lot of people, as they go home and life goes back to normal, it's going to be difficult to deal with this." 
Listman said that, for a large number of the dozens injured in the crash, taking Metro-North is "something that's part of their regular day" -- and that just getting on a train again is going to be "very difficult for people."
Most of the cars in the seven-car train derailed at 7:20 a.m. Sunday on a sharp turn just north of the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx. Four passengers died and 11 were critically injured, according to the FDNY.
The injured were taken to St. Barnabas, Montefiore Medical Center, Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, and Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx; NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Allen Pavillion in Manhattan; and Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, authorities said.
Twelve of the patients went to St. Barnabas, Listman said. Eight of those patients remained there Monday night, a spokesman said, and one had been discharged.
One of the original 12 patients taken to St. Barnabas was transferred to another hospital on Sunday.
Seven of the eight who remained overnight were kept in the intensive care unit, Listman said. Two had "significant" spinal injuries, he said -- one, whom hospital officials described as a 43-year-old man, underwent surgery in an attempt to relieve pressure to his spinal cord, he said.
Most of the injuries, he said, involved musculoskeletal injuries, as well as some minor head injuries. Some suffered fractures, including some collarbone fractures.
"The patients, overall, are doing well," Listman said, adding that many were being comforted by family members.
"There were very significant traumatic injuries," he said. "I think we were fortunate that we didn't see more severe head injuries or inter-abdominal injuries that required immediate surgery." 
Listman said staff had already begun to address "emotional and psychological" injuries as a follow-up treatment for patients.
Other hospitals were reporting similar status updates.
A spokesman for Jacobi Medical Center said Monday that 11 of the 13 patients taken there on Sunday had been treated and released. Officials at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital said four of the injured taken to The Allen Hospital on Sunday had been treated and released.
Fourteen others were taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, with eight treated and released by Monday. Officials said six remained at the hospital, and that two of them were in critical condition at the hospital on Monday.
FDNY Chief of Department Edward Kilduff said that three of the four people who died in the wreck were found outside the train. All of the fatalities involved train cars that flipped onto their sides.
Officials estimated there were about 100 or so passengers aboard the train -- much fewer than would have been aboard the train on a weekday.
FDNY Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano said that, had the train been fully occupied, the accident would have been an even bigger disaster.
Visiting Montefiore Medical Center on Sunday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it appeared most of the critically injured there were not in life-threatening condition.
He said he chatted and joked with a few of those injured.
"The two families that I talked to, their loved ones were in serious, but not critical condition, and the doctors had told them both they were going to survive, with some pain and that sort of thing," he said.
Bloomberg, who had visited St. Barnabas Hospital earlier in the day, said the two seriously injured patients he saw at Montefiore were "very badly banged up" and in one case the victim was in the operating room so he spoke with family members.
With John Valenti 
and Ivan Pereira

NYHOSP03

Doc: 'Very difficult' road ahead for Bronx derailment victims

nytrai cropped

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand reached out to the nation's railroad administrator Monday, asking for a swift and comprehensive safety evaluation of the MTA's commuter rail system after Sunday's derailment in the Bronx. 
 Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in a letter to Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo, made her request "to ensure that a similar tragedy does not happen again," according to a news release from her office. 
 The derailment is the fifth of a Metropolitan Transportation Authority train since March and the sixth Metro-North train derailment in the metro area over the past two years, the release said. 
 Gillibrand's letter to Szabo called the latest accident "simply unacceptable" and said she renews her "call for an immediate comprehensive safety evaluation of the MTA system and procedures to ensure that we do not experience a similar tragedy in the future. Additionally, I request that you provide my office with an overview of any steps that have been taken" to address MTA commuter rail safety. 
 An email seeking comment from Szabo was not immediately answered. 
 On Sunday Gillibrand also spoke to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman on the need for clear answers and improved commuter rail safety, the release said. 
 Gillibrand's request to Szabo's agency is her second in less than six months. In June, after the derailment of a Long Island Rail Road train, Gillibrand requested that the Federal Railroad Administration work with federal agencies to launch a systemwide review of the MTA's commuter rail lines to identify safety hazards. 
 Sunday's derailment is the third major event to occur on Metro-North tracks in 2013 -- a year that MTA officials have acknowledged has included a higher than normal number of safety-related incidents for its commuter railroads. 
 In May, a Metro-North train derailed in Bridgeport, Conn., injuring 76 people. Less than two weeks later, a Metro-North train killed a track worker in West Haven, Conn. 
 And in July, a freight train derailed near the same location as Sunday's event.

NYGILL03

Kirsten Gillibrand urges feds to do safety review of MTA's rail system

Glimpses into the lives of some victims of Sunday's Metro-North derailment emerged Sunday night with descriptions such as good neighbors and family men and women. 
 The Metropolitan Transportation Authority identified those killed in the rail accident as Donna L. Smith, 54, of Newburgh; James G. Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring; James M. Ferrari, 59, of Montrose; and Ahn Kisook, 35, of Queens. 
 Smith moved to her historic Newburgh home in a community called Colonial Terraces about 14 years ago, and last summer completed extensive renovations on the house, her friend and neighbor said. 
 And Lovell was "a family man" who worked on theatrical projects and often played with his kids, friends and neighbors said. 
 The wife and a friend of Ferrari were too shaken to speak; and Ahn's family could not be reached. 
 Lovell "was a great neighbor," said Alberto Hernandez. "He was a family man . . . He was a great husband. He worked hard. He worked in the city. He was always playing with his kids." 
 A family friend told The Journal News of Westchester and Rockland counties that Lovell worked as a writer and a sound and lighting designer on theatrical projects. The friend said he was traveling to Manhattan to work on the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, which is being lit Wednesday. 
 The paper reported that Lovell was the husband of Nancy Montgomery, a Philipstown councilwoman. He had four children: Brooke, a daughter, and sons Jack, Hudson and Finn. 
 "Word can't express how much my father meant to me," son Finn Lovell wrote about his father on the Instagram social networking site. "It's safe to say he molded me into the man I am today. I love you and I miss you. I can't believe your (sic) gone. This feels like an awful nightmare that I can't wake up from. Rest easy dad. I love you." 
 Smith, who lived alone, was a Girl Scout troop leader and hard worker, said her next-door neighbor Lynn Davis, 60. She put in central air conditioning, new windows and painted her 1917-era house white, Davis said. 
 "She was a very, very lovely person," Davis said. "I'd ask her, 'Where you going?' And she'd say, 'We're going on a camping trip with my troop.' She was a hard worker. She carried on two jobs" -- as a paralegal and income-tax preparer. 
 Smith and her younger sister, who lived in New Windsor, were close, Davis said. She said Smith's sister's car was parked in front of her home. Davis said she thinks the sisters may have been on the train together. 
 "It seemed like whenever I saw Donna, she was with her sister," Davis said. "They were like two peas in a pod. They just had each other." 
 Davis said Smith was unmarried and didn't have children. Smith's mother passed away a few years ago, she said. 
 Kathryn Cerone, 69, who also lives next door to Smith, said her neighbor was a "wonderful person, a very vibrant person, an active woman" who worked hard and had season tickets to the Hudson Valley Renegades baseball team. 
 "It's absolutely shocking," Cerone said of Smith's death. "I still cannot believe it. It's just so sad." 
 When Smith went on vacation, Cerone collected her neighbor's mail and newspaper and watched her house. Smith would sometimes cut her hedges or mow her lawn and Cerone would return the favor. 
 "She was just a really nice neighbor to have," said Cerone. "I'm gonna miss her. She was a lovely person."

NYDEAD02

Neighbors recall 2 of the victims killed in Metro-North derailment

Train Vics -- comp

It began with a screech and some shaking, then an arc out toward the water, settling close to where the Hudson and Harlem rivers meet. 
 Passenger cars tumbled off the track. Some people were thrown from the Grand Central Terminal-bound train. Others grabbed on to whatever they could until the crunch of glass and shriek of twisting metal came to a stop on the 5:54 a.m. Metro-North train from Poughkeepsie. 
 At the Spuyten Duyvil train station, about 100 feet south of the crash site, Doron Langberg was waiting for another train to arrive when a noise broke the silence. "It sounded horrible -- like an earthquake," the Riverdale resident said. "There was screeching and that awful shaking. Where the train usually curves, it just went straight out toward the water. I couldn't believe what I was seeing." 
 Inside the train, Jack Babcock, 51, of New Windsor had been sleeping when he felt the car derail. "When I woke up, we were just flipping over," he said. "Glass broke and there were trees and dirt coming through the windows." 
 With the car flipped on its side, Babcock and a few passengers scrambled from the train. His bruises and scratches were treated at the scene. "It's kind of sinking in now," he said. 
 The sound of responding helicopters, fire trucks and emergency vehicles woke Peter Derrick, 69, who lives near the crash scene. "If the train had gone another 50 to 100 feet, it could have crashed into the station, and it could have been much worse," he said. 
 Cherelle Coore, 19, felt the train going "very fast" and as it derailed, she managed to wrap her body around the car's luggage rail. 
 The University of Delaware nursing student saw a woman get thrown through the window as the train flipped, said Coore's cousin Lisa Delgado, who visited her at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. "She felt a jerky movement, and that's when everything started to roll over," Delgado said of Coore, who had a concussion and other injuries. 
 For Fidajete Brucaj, 49, of Yorktown, the crash was a noise, blackness and then a hospital bed. "She doesn't remember anything that happened," said her brother Hilmi Mujaj, 43, from Montefiore Medical Center. "She was asleep, she heard the noise and then woke up in the hospital." 
 The family had just spent Thanksgiving together and frantically called hospitals for two hours before finding her. 
 "My dad woke me up and asked if I had talked to my mother," daughter Hana Brucaj, 19, said. "We saw . . . the first cars were affected and were worried. She usually takes the first few cars." 
 Brucaj has bruises and a head injury. "She is awake and communicating but she complains about her back," Mujaj said. "We are glad she is alive but it will be a long recovery." 
 Cheryl Patton was on the train with two friends for a trip to New York City before her flight back to Texas on Monday. She was released, one friend was being examined and another was admitted to NewYork-Presbyterian. 
 "It was real surreal," she said. "People were calm and collected. We got up if we could and dusted ourselves off and were able to walk off the train." 
 Monday, she faces a train trip to the airport. "I just don't know if I can go through with that," she said. "Being on a train just scares the hell out of me. We're still in shock." 
 Back at Spuyten Duyvil, the train remained, a sign of death in a once-tranquil place. 
 "This is such a beautiful spot," resident Sara Winter said. "We walk by it all the time and just to see that train face down like that, it's very scary. I ride that train to work every day and I feel so safe." 
 With Nicholas Spangler, Kevin Deutsch, Rita Deutsch, Ivan Pereira, Maria Alvarez and Emily Ngo

NYPASS02

Metro-North passengers recall 'flipping over' as train derailed

Emergency responders, including NYPD, FDNY and MTA rescuers, climbed over rails and maneuvered rocky terrain with heavy equipment to reach trapped and injured passengers in a derailed Metro-North train in the Bronx and then carry them out on stretchers, officials said. 
 Rescuers on Sunday were seen carrying chain saws, and a ladder had been propped against one train car that had flipped on its side. They inflated an air bag to lift one train car off a passenger pinned underneath and used saws to cut away metal to reach victims, Edward Kilduff, FDNY chief of department, said. 
 Other officials said rescuers broke windows to get to passengers. 
 Four people were killed and 63 injured, including the train's conductor, who was in stable condition Sunday, officials said. 
 The wreckage of the train lay twisted, the front cars some distance from the curve in the track along the water where the Hudson River meets the Harlem River. The front car was dangerously close to the water. 
 "The train traveled a good distance. The cars bounced around pretty good," Kilduff said, adding that most of the injured suffered blunt trauma. 
 "We had evidence of a couple of people under a couple of cars, so we actually used air bags to lift the car -- the air bags can lift tremendous weight -- we used the air bag to lift the car off one, if not two people who were trapped," he said. 
 Saws were used within the cars to cut away metal and get people out without pulling or twisting them unnecessarily, Kilduff said. 
 The locomotive and all seven train cars were derailed, several lying on their sides. Shoring them up to stabilize the cars before going in to retrieve passengers was a challenge, Kilduff said. 
 NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said rescue boats and helicopters were on hand to search the river. Rescue divers had gone into the water to search for a passenger initially believed to have been thrown, but it was determined that nobody was in the water, Kelly said. 
 NTSB board member Earl Weener, who is leading the investigation, said at a news conference that cranes were to be brought in to right the locomotive to stop diesel spills and to right the train cars, with the possibility of finding more people trapped underneath.

NYRESC02

Chain saws, air bags used in Metro-North rescue effort

28 NYTRAI cropped /ao

Metro-North Railroad will be providing bus service until 2 a.m. Monday morning for commuters from the Tarrytown Station to the White Plains Station on the Harlem line, following the derailment of a Hudson Line train early Sunday that led to four fatalities and scores of injuries. 
 And beginning at 5 a.m. Monday, MTA Bus will provide a bus shuttle between the Yonkers Station and the 242nd Street Terminus of the Broadway #1 local subway until further notice, Metro-North announced. New York City Subways was scheduled to operate two additional #1 trains per hour during peak periods. 
 Hudson Line tickets will be cross honored on the New York City subway and on the Harlem Line, officials announced. 
 Metro-North officials encouraged the 26,000 people who normally use the Hudson Line on a normal weekday to use the Harlem Line instead. "People should expect crowded trains," a Metro-North news release said.T 
 Special parking is also being arranged to accommodate addtional drivers at the Southeast Station at the northern terminus of the Harlem Line and at Kensico Dam, which is within walking distance to the Valhalla station. 
 Riders should consult mta.info for more information on the continuing repair effort and service restoration, officials said. Metro-North also said it would have customer service representatives on hand to help customers make needed transfers.

NYCOMM02

Metro-North riders to face service changes, delays during morning commute

 derailment cropped

Sunday's Metro-North train derailment -- the third on the railroad's tracks this year and the fifth involving a Metropolitan Transportation Authority train -- is raising concerns about MTA rail safety, including on the Long Island Rail Road. 
 The deadly derailment occurred in the same area of the Bronx where a CSX freight train went off the tracks in July. And in May, a Metro-North train derailed near Bridgeport, Conn., injuring 76 people. 
 The other MTA derailments this year were two by LIRR trains and a No. 1 subway train in Manhattan -- none of which involved injuries. The number of incidents had already sparked the MTA to put together a "blue-ribbon panel" of rail safety experts in September to study the issue. 
 The LIRR and Metro-North each had two derailments last year, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, but there were no injuries in any of those. 
 "I can't see how you can't help but be concerned," said William Henderson, executive director of the MTA Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, which includes the LIRR and Metro-North commuter councils. "But at the same time, the system is a very safe system. The reason this is so stunning is that it just doesn't happen." 
 MTA board member Charles Moerdler -- a frequent critic of MTA management practices -- said the authority remains "basically, extremely safe" considering the number of trains operated on Metro-North and the LIRR -- the two busiest railroads in North America. 
 "This is probably a confluence of unexpected coincidences that pulled together," Moerdler said. "There are far more accidents on the road. There are far more accidents in the air. There are far more accidents walking than there are on the rails." 
 The NTSB last month held two days of hearings examining safety issues at Metro-North stemming from the May derailment and the deadly striking of a track worker in West Haven, Conn., 11 days later. 
 Metro-North president Howard Permut told the board members that safety has always been the agency's top priority, but that it was also increasing efforts to prevent accidents, including by undertaking "a comprehensive examination of our infrastructure and our maintenance and safety practices." 
 Yesterday's derailment was the worst on an MTA train since a No. 4 train derailed at Union Square in 1991, killing five people and injuring more than 200. 
 The last LIRR accident that claimed the lives of passengers was 63 years ago, when one train crashed into another near Kew Gardens, killing 78 people. 
 Long Island elected officials weighed in Sunday on the derailment. State Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick), chairman of the Senate's Transportation Committee, said he wanted to see the entire regional rail network "examined to identify any chronic issues that have led to past derailments or could lead to future derailments." 
 Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) called for a "swift and robust" probe into the derailment "so we can ensure that not only Metro-North, but also similar commuter rail systems like the LIRR are the safest they can be." 
 MTA board member Mitchell Pally of Stony Brook said Sunday's derailment highlights the need for continued and increased investment in older infrastructure, such as the complex and aging network of tracks near Jamaica. 
 "It's a very, very safe system. But can it be made even safer? I don't think anybody would disagree that the answer to that question is obviously yes," Pally said.

NYMTA02

Deadly Metro-North crash is MTA's fifth derailment this year

5. nyTRAIN

Investigators are trying to determine what caused a Metro-North passenger train to jump off the rails on Sunday morning, killing four people, while on an area of track that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called "dangerous." 
 The National Transportation Safety Board began its investigation Sunday at the scene of the derailment, about 100 feet north of the Spuyten Duyvil station on the Hudson Line. 
 The seven-car train derailed at about 7:20 a.m., according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Aaron Donovan. 
 More than 100 passengers were on the train, and FDNY reported at least 67 victims, including four killed, 11 critically injured and six with serious injuries. Five NYPD officers on the train commuting to work were among the injured, sources said. 
 Sunday night, the MTA identified the four dead as Donna L. Smith, 54, of Newburgh; James G. Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring; James M. Ferrari, 59, of Montrose; and Ahn Kisook, 35, of Queens. 
 A source in law enforcement said the train operator, William Rockefeller of Rhinebeck, told first responders he had applied the brakes but they did not work. Authorities have not confirmed that. 
 Rockefeller told first responders the train had reached an excessive speed going into the turn when the derailment happened, the source saaid. He tried to apply the brakes to no avail, so he tried to "dump" the brakes, which is similar to pulling a car's emergency brake to avoid a collision at the last second. He said that did not halt the train. 
 However, Russ Quimby, a rail safety consultant and former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said train brakes are usually designed with a failsafe and if they malfunction, the train is designed to come to a stop. 
 Mayor Michael Bloomberg, visiting Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, said it appears most of the critically injured were not in life-threatening conditions. He said he chatted and joked with a few of those injured. 
 "The two families that I talked to, their loved ones were in serious but not critical condition and the doctors had told them both they were going to survive, with some pain and that sort of thing," he said. He said both were "very badly banged up" and in one case the victim was in the operating room so he spoke with family members. 
 "In the other case, I talked to the police officer, who is 37 years old . . . and she was in good spirits," he continued. "Actually we joked about me being unemployed in 32 days and the fact I was too old to join the police department." He said she has three children, who were being cared for at home. 
 Earlier, he visited other victims at St. Barnabas Hospital. 
 Neighbor Alberto Hernandez described victim James Lovell as a good person. "He was a family man," he said. "He was a great husband. He worked hard. He worked in the city. He was always playing with his kids." 
 Smith, who lived alone, was a Girl Scout troop leader and hard worker, said her next-door neighbor Lynn Davis, 60. "She was a very, very lovely person," Davis said. 
 A friend of Ferrari's and the victim's wife said the family was not yet ready to comment about the derailment or their loss. 
 Late Sunday, workers were at the site of the accident, preparing to restore some cars to an upright position. 
 Crews were expected to use a crane to lift up the overturned cars Sunday night to search "for any further fatalities" and to avoid further fuel spills, NTSB member Earl Weener said during a briefing at the scene. Cuomo had said earlier he believed all passengers had been accounted for on Sunday. 
 Weener said a "multidisciplinary team" will meet Sunday night to form sub-teams to examine the point of derailment, the train signal system, mechanical equipment, data from event recorders, maintenance and personnel records and survival factors. 
 Weener said the team will document the condition of all the cars before turning the equipment back over to Metro-North. It also will interview the derailed train's personnel. 
 "Our mission is to understand not just what happened but why it happened, with the intent of preventing it from happening again," Weener said. 
 He said the NTSB already had downloaded information from the train's data recorder, which contains information about the train's operation at the time of the derailment. 
 Cuomo said track repairs will begin only after the NTSB finishes its investigation, which will take a week to 10 days. 
 "Tomorrow, I think it's fair to say, commuters should plan on a long commute," Cuomo said. 
 The derailed train, which was being pushed from the rear by a diesel locomotive, had been headed from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan when it tumbled from the tracks on a sharp curve near where the Hudson River meets the Harlem River. 
 "That's a dangerous area of the track, just by design," Cuomo told CNN on Sunday. "That's a difficult area of the track, but that doesn't explain the crash, either." 
 But he added later: "It can't just be the curve." 
 Trains are supposed to reduce their speed to 30 mph at that spot, according to the MTA. Before that point, trains can travel as fast as 70 mph. 
 Cuomo said people were ejected from the train because the front and rear doors opened. 
 As the train cars slid along the ground on their sides, he said, the cars "were picking up rocks and dirt, tree limbs, debris." 
 Late Sunday, emergency workers continued to work by floodlight among the cars, which still lay on their sides or listed dangerously along the river, as emergency boats floated in the water and emergency vehicles sat with lights flashing. 
 Bodies of the dead and the injured had been carried out on stretchers, and no passengers remained aboard late Sunday, but a ladder used to access the train was left leaning against the second car. 
 Dozens of uniformed police officers, firefighters and other first responders were still on the scene, some directing car traffic away from the area. 
 Maria Herbert was aboard the derailed train, working as an assistant trainman, said her husband, William Herbert, 53, of upstate Wallkill. 
 Herbert said his wife called him minutes after the event, injured and sounding like she couldn't breathe. 
 "Thank God she's alive," he said. "If that train went into the water, it would have been worse. I think God stopped the train." 
 Herbert, who said he worked in the maintenance department of the MTA for 25 years, said he and his wife had often discussed maintenance issues on the curve where the train derailed on Sunday. 
 "She had been fearful about that area," Herbert said. "That curve is very sharp and that rail wears away." 
 FDNY Chief of Department Edward Kilduff said that three of the four people who died were found by first responders outside the train, and one was inside. All of the fatalities were from cars that had flipped onto their sides. Most of those injured had suffered blunt trauma, Kilduff said. 
 Rescuers had to cut open cars and use air bags to lift them off one or two people who were trapped underneath, Kilduff said. 
 Kilduff said the terrain posed a challenge to rescuers, some of whom had to carry their equipment to the area. "The stability of the cars was also a serious challenge," he said. 
 NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said that Rockefeller, the train's engineer, was at a hospital in stable condition. "He's banged up, but conscious and alert," Kelly said at a news conference. 
 Media reports indicated that Rockefeller was a 20-year veteran of the MTA and had made a statement to investigators. 
 Officials estimated more than 100 people were on the train -- much fewer than would have been riding during a workday. 
 If the train had been fully occupied, said FDNY Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano, it would have been a tremendous disaster. 
 MTA board member Charles Moerdler described the scene as "dreadful, awful, chaotic." 
 "There were rail cars scattered all over the place, plus an engine, and hundreds of rescue workers -- fire, police and voluntary ambulance -- working feverishly together with canines," said Moerdler, who noted that the train came off the tracks along a "treacherous curve" and in an area where leaves are known to fall on tracks, making for dangerous, slippery rail conditions. 
 Quimby, a rail safety consultant who worked for 22 years as an NTSB crash investigator, said the curvature of the rail, and the speed at which the train traveled, would be among several factors examined in the NTSB probe. 
 He said curved rail can be susceptible to derailments because the centrifugal force of a train when it comes through a turn can, over time, gradually cause rails to separate from each other. 
 He said the board would likely assemble several different teams to look at the equipment, how people were hurt or killed, emergency response efforts, track and signal conditions, and human factors. 
 The group would likely be headed by a doctor of psychology who would examine any factors that could have taken the engineer's attention away from his job, including fatigue that could have caused him to "nod off," mobile devices, or drugs or alcohol. The engineer would give blood and urine samples for toxicological testing, he said. 
 Quimby said a type of event recorder that is standard on most commuter trains would likely provide answers to how fast it was moving when it derailed, and whether brakes were applied. He said he has never seen an instance of brake failure causing a commuter train to derail, because brake systems are generally designed with failsafes. If the brakes malfunction, a train automatically will come to a stop, he said. 
 Anthony Botallico, general chairman of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees -- the union representing Metro-North engineers and conductors -- said several train crew members were injured, as well as "extremely upset and traumatized." 
 "It's just a terrible tragedy," Botallico said. "My thoughts and prayers are going out to the family members and everybody who was killed. It's something that we're all feeling really hard right now." 
 The injured were taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center and Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, and Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, authorities said. 
 Spokesman Steve Clark at St. Barnabas said 10 people were admitted to the hospital to stay overnight. So far, two have been officially discharged from the hospital. One is a 14-year-old boy who was traveling with his father and the other is a man in his mid 20s. Clark said many of the people who are staying are not critically injured except for two: a 43-year-old man with a spinal cord injury and a 21-year-old woman with a leg fracture. 
 A woman named Maria Ojito stopped by the hospital and told reporters she was a family friend of the 43-year-old man who suffered spinal cord injuries. She said his name is Samuel Rivera Sr. and that he had a son, also named Samuel Rivera, who was the 14-year-old boy released earlier, both from Ossining. She said the two were headed into the city but she is not sure for what and that the father was undergoing surgery had been for 10 hours as of 6 p.m. She said the elder Rivera worked for MTA but not sure doing what, but that he was not working at the time. 
 She said the family is "devastated" by the news. 
 At NewYork-Presbyterian, seven patients were evaluated, treated and released and seven others were admitted for further treatment. Two of the seven patients admitted remain in critical condition. 
 The hospital said those seeking status on family members can call 718-817-7444 or 212-639-9675. 
 Jacobi Medical Center received 13 patients, all in stable condition. Several have since been discharged, according to the hospital. 
 Kelly was scheduled to visit the five injured officers in the hospital. 
 Officials said at news conferences they don't believe any of those passengers who were seriously injured will die. 
 A family center staffed by Red Cross and officials from the MTA was set up at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx. 
 Unlike air disasters, where authorities have complete passenger lists, there was no such list of who was on the Metro-North commuter train. 
 Politicians issued statements on the tragedy, including Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who said he was in contact with Kelly and was monitoring the situation. 
 The White House issued a statement on Sunday, saying President Barack Obama had been briefed about the derailment and that his thoughts and prayers were with the friends and families of the victims. 
 Cuomo said Amtrak service between New York and Albany was resumed later Sunday. 
 Trains were moving through the derailment area at restricted speed, but service on the Hudson Line was suspended in both directions between Tarrytown and Grand Central on Sunday. 
 The Spuyten Duyvil station is off Edsall Avenue near Johnson Avenue in the Bronx, about 11 miles from Grand Central Terminal. The Henry Hudson Parkway passes over the area. 
 The derailment is the third major event to occur on Metro-North tracks in 2013 -- a year that has MTA officials have acknowledged has included a higher than normal number of safety-related incidents for its commuter railroads. In May, a Metro-North train derailed in Bridgeport, Conn, injuring 76 people. Less than two weeks later, a Metro-North train killed a track worker in West Haven, Conn. 
 And in July, a freight train derailed near the same location as Sunday's event. 
 With Ellen Yan, Maria Alvarez, Anthony M. DeStefano, Kevin Deutsch, Rita Deutsch, Tania Lopez, Ivan Pereira, David M. Schwartz, Nicholas Spangler, Andrei Berman and The Associated Press

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Victims identified in fatal Metro-North derailment

Complete coverage: 2013 Metro-North train derailment and investigation

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