Terrified passengers suddenly sent flying through a Long Island Rail Road car yesterday waited a nerve-wracking 10 minutes before they were told they had been rear-ended by another train – and not attacked by terrorists.
“People were wondering if it was a bomb,” said Desiree Trippett, 34, a passenger on the LIRR train that was hit around 7 a.m. by an Amtrak maintenance train in a tunnel just east of Penn Station.
“People were starting to freak out and panic.”
Officials said 136 people – including one on the Amtrak work train – suffered minor injuries.
Many of the passengers said they feared they were in the midst of a terror attack until the conductor finally announced at around 7:10 a.m. that there had been a crash and asked them to sit down.
Lisa Pruitt, 41, from Central Islip, said people “were screaming” and had no idea how they were going to get out until the announcement calmed them down.
“People started pushing each other trying to get to the front of the train,” she said.
“I was on the floor and trying not to get trampled.”
The LIRR train from Ronkonkoma was packed with 1,200 riders – hundreds of whom were already standing because they were waiting to get off.
It was stopped at a signal about 200 feet from the platform when it was hit.
“I saw a pair of headlights coming closer and closer and not stopping,” said Pruitt, who was looking out the window of the last car.
“I was saying to myself, ‘Don’t they see us?’ Then there was a huge crash.”
The passengers were not evacuated for 30 minutes.
Fire officials said they wanted to make sure the train had not derailed and that there was no debris on the track before removing people.
“It’s a judgment call, because if we send out personnel out onto the tracks we have to shut the power off,” said FDNY Deputy Chief Michael O’Keeffe.
Investigators from the Federal Railroad Administration were checking the signal system, testing the brakes and reviewing the data recorder on the Amtrak locomotive to see if there were any problems, officials said.
The FRA said it has interviewed the three Amtrak workers and crews on both trains have been tested for drugs and alcohol.
Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel would not comment on whether the crash was a result of human error, mechanical failure or a signal malfunction.
LIRR President Jim Dermody said the signal system should have alerted the Amtrak operator there was a train ahead of him.
“Penn Station is a very congested terminal,” he said.
“We’re all vying for track space.”
Conductor Howard Krumsiek, 48, who was in the second to last car, said he promptly asked passengers in the back cars to move forward because he “was worried about leaking fuel.”
Krumsiek, who was constantly in touch with the command center at Penn Station, said the crash “knocked open some doors in the rear two cars,” but no one fell out.
“It didn’t derail – which is a blessing,” he said.
The commuter train was able to safely pull into the platform around 7:30 a.m.
“The first people I saw were firefighters. They were trying to calm people down,” Trippett said.
“They were really organized.”
Mayor Bloomberg called the response “instantaneous, overwhelming in number and well-coordinated.
“I’m sure you can find people that say, ‘I was confused, I wasn’t told, I didn’t get this, I didn’t get that.’ To step back and look at it, they did a good job,” he said.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the Amtrak train was traveling about 10 mph when it rammed into the eight-car LIRR train.
“The work train hit the passenger train, derailing the locomotive and the second car on the work train,” he said.
Firefighters and medics set up a makeshift triage unit in an LIRR waiting room.
The Amtrak train, which had left the Sunnyside yards in Queens just minutes before the impact, carried a crew of three.
The tracks that run into Penn Station from Queens are owned by Amtrak and leased to the LIRR.
The collision caused delays of about 30 minutes on the LIRR and Amtrak lasting for several hours.
Things were back to normal on both Amtrak and the LIRR by evening.
Most of those hurt suffered “minor injuries” like sprains and bruises to the head, neck and back, Scoppetta said.
“I got thrown backward. Some people got hit in the head,” said Rich Sirico, 41, who complained of back injuries.
“Typically, a lot of people are standing, waiting for the doors to open.
“There were people who had bloody heads and noses.”
Michelle Shaw, of Central Islip, was getting ready to get off when she was tossed out of her seat.
“I always get up a few seconds early and next thing, I was on the floor,” said Shaw, who injured her left shoulder.
“I didn’t think another train could have hit us.”
Additional reporting by David Seifman and Jeane MacIntosh
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Timeline of events:
5:42 a.m. – An eight-car LIRR train leaves Ronkonkoma and heads west to Penn Station. It is scheduled to arrive at 7:02 a.m.
7 a.m. – The train, waiting to pull into Track 14 with 1,200 passengers on board, is rear-ended by an Amtrak train that was coming from the Sunnyside Yards in Queens.
7:10 a.m. – Announcement is made on board LIRR train, telling riders it was hit by another train.
7:30 a.m. – The LIRR train pulls into the station, where firefighters and crews start transporting injured passengers to area hospitals.
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* The eight-car LIRR train had approximately 1,200 passengers on board by the time it was approaching the city.
* The LIRR train was waiting to pull into Penn Station along Track 14 about 200 feet from the platform when a Amtrak maintenance train traveling 10 mph that originated at the Sunnyside Yards in Queens hit it.
* Passengers were evacuated after firefighters determined the train had not derailed and that the 120 injured riders had suffered minor injuries.