Shelter Island resident Keturah Hurst was just planning a relaxing day in Brooklyn with a friend when an everyday ride turned a into terrifying experience after her LIRR train crashed into two cars in Riverhead this afternoon.
Hurst contacted RiverheadLOCAL from inside the train.
“Everyone on the train is fine,” Hurst said by phone just after 3 p.m. “It’s so scary to be part of an accident and feel helpless until the first responders and police arrive.”
A westbound passenger train collided with two vehicles at the railroad crossing at Mill Road in Riverhead at around 1:40 this afternoon. One vehicle was stopped northbound at the railroad crossing gate when a Honda CRV, also headed northbound, rear-ended the first vehicle, according to a witness at the scene.
Both vehicles were pushed into the tracks, where the passenger train, which left the Riverhead train station at 1:37 p.m., collided with both cars.
One of the drivers was extracted from her vehicle by Riverhead Fire Department heavy rescue. It was unclear whether either vehicle carried any passengers. A witness at the scene said the driver of the silver sedan pushed onto the tracks got out of the car just before the train made impact.
Hurst said she boarded the 12;58 p.m. westbound LIRR train in Greenport and found herself, after the accident, stranded in Riverhead on West Main Street, with one car of the train on on side of the road, a second car on the other, and her section of the train situated between the two. Windows on the train were blown out in the accident and broken, she said.
“Nobody on the train was even sure what happened,” she said. “It’s so surreal, when there are no emergency people yet on the scene and you’re just watching the police arrive first, then the ambulances, and then everyone starts to arrive.”
No one on the train felt any impact, and there were no screams, she said. There was no smell of smoke or fire, Hurst added. “There are only a handful of people on this train and for the most part, people are calm.”
Hurst said she’d been sitting on the train for about 45 minutes. “There are a lot of investigators on the scene,” she said, adding that she’d observed at least one victim who had to extricated from a vehicle involved in the accident.
On the upside, Hurst said she gave thanks to the lightning speed of emergency responders and said those first on the scene made a “very quick assessment. They were very diligent. It was very reassuring.”
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