Planned warning lights were never installed at Metro-North crash site

 Photo: Getty Images

State transportation officials planned five years ago to install more flashing warning lights at the Westchester train crossing where a driver and five commuters perished in a fiery crash Tuesday — but inexplicably never did so.


The third set of lights would have been put 100 to 200 feet back from the crossing, on the curving road leading up to it, to give drivers a few more seconds’ notice of an approaching train.
State officials were unable to say why the planned improvement — which they called “proactive’’ and not in response to any perceived deficiency in the warning system — was never made.
The $128,000 set aside for the extra lights in 2009 went back into the agency’s general coffers last year.
Asked if the extra lights could have helped prevent this week’s horrific accident, state Transportation Department spokesman Beau Duffy told The Associated Press, “There’s a lot of unknowns here.
“It’s way too early to be guessing about what could have or couldn’t have made a difference,” he said.

Ellen Brody, a mother of three and Chappaqua jewelry-store saleswoman, had been on her way to meet a client when her Mercedes SUV drove into the path of an oncoming train. Although the other two sets of warning lights and descending gate at the crossing were working properly, a power substation about 20 feet away may have blocked the oncoming train from Brody’s view, said National Transportation Safety Board investigator Robert Sumwalt on Friday.
This weekend, the NTSB plans to set up a train and a vehicle at the scene “to see how far back people can see each other,” he said.
Alan Brody, Ellen’s husband, said at her funeral Friday that she was unfamiliar with the neighborhood and may have become confused after getting detoured toward the congested grade crossing because of an accident on the Taconic Parkway.
“Somehow, she ended up in this strange and unfamiliar place,’’ he said, speaking at a Dobbs Ferry synagogue crowded with 500 mourners.
“Who could imagine a major commuter railroad running through this? How could it?’’
The husband added, “Our hearts go out to everyone who’s been involved with this.”
He said he wished he could have been his wife’s “superhero” to save her.
“I always tried to be there for her,” said the author and journalist. “I generally succeeded, but on that night, I wanted to be her superhero.”
His voice broke with emotion as he added, “Only God knows why I couldn’t be there to save her.”
The Brodys’ three tearful daughters also bore witness to their grief.
“Mom, Mom, Mom,” sobbed the youngest, high schooler Alexa, standing at a podium with her sister Julia, a University of Delaware student, and Danielle, who is a Delaware graduate.
“Your smile lights up the world and my life, and right now it’s so dark,” the teen cried.
“The light went out.”

Original post found here: http://nypost.com/2015/02/06/additional-warning-lights-were-planned-but-never-installed-at-site-of-fatal-wreck/