New York – A train derailed in a deadly accident yesterday involving a Metro-North train on the Hudson line. The train crash left four people killed so far and dozens injured. The injured victims had to be extricated by rescue crews and were triaged on the scene before being transported to hospital emergency rooms in New York City. The train was scheduled to stop in Grand Central Terminal but wrecked before arriving in the station for an unknown reason. According to officials, the cause of the accident is still under investigation with reports showing that the speed limit on that section of the track was supposed to be 30 miles per hour. Crash investigators were analyzing all evidence to determine if the engineer was speeding at the time of the derailment. They will also need to examine the possibility that the crew could have been drunk or using drugs or even taking prescription medications. Experts note that a drunk driver in the case of a train carries much more serious consequences and punishments. A train crash can lead to many more injury victims compared to a car accident and this potential places a larger burden of responsibility on the train company as well as the individual engineer.

Concerned commuters explain that they are worried about the safety of the trains they travel on since this is the third train accident this year involving Metro-North. Activists have demanded that the administration take additional safety precautions in order to prevent additional accidents. Some feel that safety and maintenance has been lacking, leading to these crashes that have injured and killed many victims. Read more about this train crash here.

Photo by Adam E. Moreira (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons