LIRR suspends service after train derailed in Fresh Hyde Park station, twenty nine injured
A Long Island Rail Road passenger train sideswiped a lump of work equipment Saturday night, injuring at least twenty nine people and halting service.
None of the injuries from the partial train derailment a half-mile east of Fresh Hyde Park were life-threatening, officials said. The worst were violated bones and lacerations, said Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano.
The passenger train, tied for Huntington, L.I., left Penn Station at 8:22 p.m. Just after nine p.m., the eastbound train collided with a stationary maintenance car near a switch inbetween Fresh Hyde Park and Merillon Ave., MTA President Thomas Prendergast said.
Officials say the LIRR service has been suspended in both directions the Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay and Port Jefferson branches.
The collision caused the train’s 2nd and third cars to lurch from the tracks, Prendergast said. The 12-car train had been carrying six hundred passengers.
LIRR suspended service in both directions on the Ronkonkoma, Oyster Bay and Port Jefferson branches, asking customers to use the Montauk, Babylon and Hempstead lines instead.
A chunk of a battered work train lists off the tracks after it was sideswiped by a Long Island Rail Road passenger train (at rear) near Fresh Hyde Park.
A woman is aided by firefighters after the LIRR crash Saturday night. At least twenty nine passengers were injured in the accident.
Workers examine the harm to the LIRR commuter train after it sideswiped a chunk of work equipment near the Fresh Hyde Park station.
Fresh Hyde Park firefighters cut through fences to reach trapped passengers in the listing train cars, setting ladders against an elevated, rocky embankment.
Passengers said they felt the train screech to a stop — sending people sliding around the car.
Conductor Car window smashed. Hit something on tracks. #LIRR pic.twitter.com/UeQwFkKuql
“All of a unexpected there was a big jolt,” said Josh Mantell, 23, who was in the third car from the train’s rear. “It felt like a car crash. I’ve never experienced anything like that.”
Andrew Valentin, 21, who was inwards one of the train’s front cars, said he felt it tilt off the tracks.
“There was another gentleman across from me. I plunged,” he said. “I apologized to him. Neither of us realized what was going on,” he said.
Nassau County officials said they had designated the Fresh Hyde Park Village Hall as a place where passengers’ loved ones can reunite with them.