VALHALLA, N.Y. - Police have now released the names of two of the Metro North train crash victims.
Aditya Tomar, 41, of Danbury was a passenger on the train.
A 49-year-old mother of three, Ellen Brody, of Edgemont, New York was killed when her SUV was hit by the train in Valhalla, New York.
At 6:30, Tuesday night Brody was in her SUV, stopped on the train tracks at the Commerce Street crossing, when the crossing gate came down on her car. According to a witness, who was in the vehicle behind her, she got out, looked confused and tried to push the arm off of her car.
But, it was too late.
The 5:44 express train, from Grand Central Station in New York City, was bearing down. Mrs. Brody never had time to get her vehicle off the tracks. The train smashed into the SUV with such force, it pushed the vehicle some 500 feet up the tracks before the train came to rest and the car exploded. In addition to Brody, five passengers on the train were killed.
The NTSB has brought in a plethora of experts in various areas, including railroad signals, traffic signals, railroad crossing gates and recorders, which are essentially the black boxes onboard trains.