The Long Island Railroad
The Long Island Railroad also abbreviated as the LIRR, is the busiest commuter-railroad in North America. Serving the southeastern part of New York, stretching all the way from Manhattan to Suffolk County in Long Island. In this article we will take a look at the railroad accidents that occurred on these tracks.
The first operations began
The first operations began in the 1830s, 190 years ago, since then there was an extensive number of railroad accidents on Long Island Railroad.
Some of the deadliest Long Island Railroad Accidents resulted in hundreds of deaths and many people injured.
The Long Island Railroad Accident – Kew Garden Train Crash It was a collision between two trains, it occured in November 22, 1950, unfortunately at one of the rush hours. The devastating accident left 78 people dead and 363 injured.
The train crash happened as a result of fatigue and a lack of proper crew procedures according to the Public Service Commision. The official cause of the Long Island Railroad accident was determined to be the Babylon train’s engineer’s ignorance of the “Go Slow” signal; also the brakeman of the Hempstead train was found guilty of leaving his train unprotected.
The Long Island Railroad Accident – Rockville Centre Train Crash Was a crash between two trains that happened on February 17, 1950 on the Montauk Branch just west of Rockville Centre station in Rockville Centre, New York.
The unfortunate event has caused the death of 32 people, injuring between 70-168. Until the Kew Garden Accident, this was considered the deadliest accident in the railroad’s history. The collision was head-on, meaning that the trains were traveling towards one another on the same track, due to construction. At that time, New York Times reported “one of the cars was virtually torn apart”.
The Long Island Railroad Accident – Herricks Road in Mineola It was a train and vehicle crash, occurred on March 14, 1982. The train hit a van at a level crossing, killing nine people and injuring one.
The Long Island Railroad Accident – Deer Park Happened on May 17, 2011, when a commuter train hit a truck that attempted to drive around the crossing gate. The driver was killed and two passengers were injured.
The Long Island Railroad Accident at New Hyde Park Station Occurred on October 8, 2016, where a commuter train side swiped a maintenance train, 33 passengers were injured with 4 seriously injured.
The Long Island Railroad Accident – Atlantic Terminal Occurred on January 4, 2017 when the train derailed in Brooklyn, over 103 people were injured.
The last accident we are aware of, happened on February 26, 2019, when two trains hit a pickup truck at a railroad crossing in Westbury, NY. The drived and two passengers were killed and many were injured.
These are all the Long Island Railroad accidents we are aware of, please let us know if you are aware of any others.[/cs_content_seo]
