Arguments can be made about third rail design until pigs turn purple, but it doesn’t change the apparent fact that this tragedy was caused by the driver of the SUV who went under a flashing and dropping gate, stopped when she shouldn’t have, and got out to check the damage to her roof before she got back into her car.
Nice person I’m sure, but even nice people kill just as nice people through otherwise undefinable and unimaginable intentions.
Hope her husband has a good lawyer and a high excess policy, and that the legal beagles don’t try to shift the blame onto the MTA. The rail wasn’t designed with this in mind.
A metal “shoe” slips underneath the third rail rather than skimming along the top. Some have questioned whether the collision caused the shoe to pry up the third rail.
The “shoe” is a hinged, spring-loaded, pedal-like electrically conductive device that slides at pressure provided by the spring along the underside of the power rail, I don’t believe the shoe could survive extreme upwards forces without breaking, or bending and damaged. This theory can also be discredited by the simple fact that for approximately 33 feet on either side of the roadway, there is no third-rail as there is an approximate 80 ft gap including the width of the road. This gap is significant because it is within this gap the train plows into the SUV while the third-rail shoes are disengaged from that rail. The lead Metro North car with its shoes disengaged pushes the SUV across the road (Commerce street) and down the track with the SUV striking and severely tearing up the and dislodging the rail from its insulated housing. Instantly after the power rail supports were demolished there would have been no more third-rail alignment for leading Metro car’s “shoes” to re-engage onto.
Arguments can be made about third rail design until pigs turn purple, but it doesn’t change the apparent fact that this tragedy was caused by the driver of the SUV who went under a flashing and dropping gate, stopped when she shouldn’t have, and got out to check the damage to her roof before she got back into her car.
Nice person I’m sure, but even nice people kill just as nice people through otherwise undefinable and unimaginable intentions.
Hope her husband has a good lawyer and a high excess policy, and that the legal beagles don’t try to shift the blame onto the MTA. The rail wasn’t designed with this in mind.
A metal “shoe” slips underneath the third rail rather than skimming along the top. Some have questioned whether the collision caused the shoe to pry up the third rail.
The “shoe” is a hinged, spring-loaded, pedal-like electrically conductive device that slides at pressure provided by the spring along the underside of the power rail, I don’t believe the shoe could survive extreme upwards forces without breaking, or bending and damaged. This theory can also be discredited by the simple fact that for approximately 33 feet on either side of the roadway, there is no third-rail as there is an approximate 80 ft gap including the width of the road. This gap is significant because it is within this gap the train plows into the SUV while the third-rail shoes are disengaged from that rail. The lead Metro North car with its shoes disengaged pushes the SUV across the road (Commerce street) and down the track with the SUV striking and severely tearing up the and dislodging the rail from its insulated housing. Instantly after the power rail supports were demolished there would have been no more third-rail alignment for leading Metro car’s “shoes” to re-engage onto.