4 dead, 63 injured after NYC-bound Metro-North passenger train derails in Bronx

At least four people were killed and 63 injured when a Manhattan-bound Metro-North train derailed Sunday morning in the Bronx, toppling cars and sending passengers flying from their seats.

At least two passengers were ejected from the Hudson line train when it skidded off the tracks at 7:20 a.m. in a sharp bend just north of the Spuyten Duyvil Station.  

Officials said seven cars, including the locomotive, derailed. One car flipped down a river bank, coming to rest where the Harlem River meets the Hudson River.

An FDNY spokesman said 11 people were in critical condition at area hospitals.

Among the injured was a female NYPD officer in her 20s who was on her way to work. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly visited her at St. Barnabas Hospital, where she was being treated for broken ribs and leg and shoulder injuries.

Four other off-duty NYPD officers were also aboard the train. Two of the officers were treated at the scene and two were taken to Montefiore Medical Center.

The engineer, a 15-year Metro-North veteran, told officials he applied the brakes, but they didn’t respond, a source told the Daily News. The speed limit for the curve is 30 mph.

Officials said trains normally slow from 70 mph to 30 mph before they enter the curve.

Investigators, including FBI agents, were probing whether the train was going too fast.

“I was flung six feet,” said survivor Dianna Jackson, 40, of Poughkeepsie as blood streamed down her face.

Jackson said she was in the third car from the front of the trail and that it landed on its side.

“I landed on the shattered window,” Jackson said. “I was lying on my back, gravel was flying everywhere. I had gravel in my teeth, I was eating rocks. But I was grateful to be eating rocks because I’m still alive.”

Jackson and other passengers said the train seemed to be going too fast.

“The driver was going around the curve really fast,” Jackson said.” Next thing you know (we’re) in middle of wreckage.”

NYPD scuba divers were searching the river for passengers and cadaver dogs and helicopter crews were searching for other survivors who may have been ejected.

“We think everyone is accounted for,” Gov. Cuomo said. “We’ve gone over the site several times.

“What we do know is four people lost their lives in the holiday season after Thanksgiving,” said Cuomo, who called for called for prayer.

More than 100 were aboard the train that originate in Poughkeepsie at 5:54 a.m. and was headed to Grand Central Terminal.

Many passengers, including some headed home at the end of the long holiday weekend, were asleep when they were jarred awake by screeching metal, screams and a loud bang as cars left the rails.

Survivors said the violent crash sent passengers somersaulting from their seats, some landing on top of each other.

“All the sudden the woman sitting in front of me was on my lap,” said Joseph Melendez, 44, a hotel manager from Poughkepsie. “The train was totally on its side. People were tossed all around.

“I saw a woman pinned between the chair and the gravel,” said Melendez. “The windows blew out when the train fell and she went through the window. She was alive I think, but in bad condition.”

At least 12 of the injured passengers were taken St. Barnabas Hospital, where officials said two were in critical condition — including a 43-year-old man with a spinal cord injury and a 21-year-old woman with severe lacerations. A 14-year-old boy was also being treated at St. Barnabas.

Another 17 survivors were at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where four were in critical condition.

Jacobi Medical Center were treating 13 passengers, none were in critical condition.

“Folks are stunned. They’re traumatized. Certainly some will suffer from some form of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” said Dr. Ernest Patti of St. Barnabas. “This will be a trying thing for them to get back on a train.”

Survivor Sharelle Coore, 19, a student at the University of Delaware, told relatives that a woman sitting in front of her was ejected through the window of the train.

Coore landed on the ceiling of the train car with her legs wrapped around the luggage rack, said her cousin Lisa Delgado, of Washington Heights.

Thankful to be alive, Coore told relatives from her hospital bed at New York-Presbyterian, “God is good.”

The National Transportation Safety Board immediately dispatched a “go-team” to investigate the accident.

Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino said NTSB investigators would examine “the track itself to see if it was stable.”

At the White House, President Obama said his “thoughts and prayers” went out to the injured and the loved ones of those killed.

“The White House will continue to stay in contact with the federal, state and local partners as they respond to this event,” Obama said in a statement.

The incident marked at least the second train derailment of a Metro-North train. There were no injuries in the previous accidents.

In July, a 25-car CSX garbage train derailed and damaged tracks on the Metro-North Hudson line in the Spuyten Duyvil area.

William Herbert, 53, a former Metro-North maintenance worker, said his wife, Maria, 45, was an assistant conductor on the train that derailed Sunday. His wife was being treated at New York-Presbyterian for rib and shoulder injuries.

“Thank god she’s alive,” Herbert said. “If the train went into the water, that would have been it.”

Enraged by the accident, Herbert blasted the MTA, saying the agency has been cutting corners when it comes to safety.

“The MTA is not the greatest organization,” Herbert said. “It’s all about the money. It’s save money first and safety second.”

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#BREAKING several people injured on stretchers after passengers say Metro North train detrailed pic.twitter.com/cbmb2vhyyo

— Jessica Cunnington (@JessicaNews12) December 1, 2013

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#BREAKING several people injured on stretchers after passengers say Metro North train detrailed pic.twitter.com/cbmb2vhyyo

— Jessica Cunnington (@JessicaNews12) December 1, 2013

Last car almost in the Hudson River #derail pic.twitter.com/x5Laa6ALF7

— Steve Mann (@stevemann) December 1, 2013