Train derails east of NYC; dozens suffer injuries

About 600 people were on the 8:22 p.m. train out of Penn Station train when it crashed, the Democratic governor said in a statement.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Thomas Prendergast said the front car sideswiped the work train, causing the second and third cars of the passenger train to derail.

Dozens of firefighters and police officers were at the scene of the derailment, about 20 miles east of Manhattan.

The second and third cars were hanging off the track, which is slightly elevated. The cars were mangled and the doors appeared to have been pried open.

Passenger Ray Martel, 41, of West Hempstead, was heading home after spending the evening in New York City visiting friends.

Martel, who was in the first car, said when the train stuck something “everyone gasped.”

“We knew we hit something but we didn’t know how bad it was,” he said.

Passenger Craig Heller of East Meadow told Newsday he was in the second car which “all of a sudden just started shaking.”

“A chair in the car I was in went flying and the door crashed open,” Heller said. “Fortunately, then it stopped and we were tilted in our car, but everybody in our car was fine. It felt like we could actually completely tip over, obviously, while it was happening. That was a fear.”

Train service in the area was suspended in both directions indefinitely.

The Federal Railroad Administration said it had investigators en route to the scene.

The derailment happened just over a week after a commuter train crashed into the terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey, killing one person and injuring more than 100. Federal investigators are still trying to determine the cause.

Long Island Rail Road trains have been involved in 72 accidents since Jan. 1, 2011, according to federal data, including 3 collisions and 15 derailments on tracks used for passenger service.

The accidents caused the deaths of five people in vehicles that wound up on the tracks, 30 injuries and nearly $10 million in damage to train tracks and equipment.

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Matthews reported from New York. Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak and Michael Balsamo also contributed to this report.

Karen Matthews And Rachelle Blidner, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Train derails east of NYC; dozens suffer injuries

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