Service on the Metro-North Harlem Line between North White Plains and Pleasantville resumed Thursday morning as Metropolitan Transportation Authority crews worked through the night to clear wreckage from the fiery Tuesday night collision of an express train and an SUV at a Valhalla railroad crossing that killed six people and injured 15 homebound commuters.
News reports and family friends have identified the five train passengers and the SUV driver killed in the crash, the worst in Metro-North history.
The SUV driver was Ellen Brody, a 49-year-old Edgemont resident. Her daughter, Danielle Brody, is a reporter at the Westchester County Business Journal. She began work at this publication on Tuesday. The accident occurred that evening as the Edgemont woman drove forward onto the tracks at Commerce Street after a crossing gate dropped on the back of her vehicle, according to an eyewitness.
A close friend of the victim said Brody worked on Tuesday in Chappaqua, where she was a sales administrator at ICD Jewelry, according to her LinkedIn page. Driving from Chappaqua to an unfamiliar location in Scarsdale, she got lost and stopped to ask for directions, her friend said. The accident occurred not long after she resumed her trip.
Brody would have celebrated her 50th birthday next month, said her grief-stricken friend.
The Journal News and other publications identified the five passengers killed when the track”™s electrified third rail, dislodged by the impact of the collision, penetrated the first car of  the eight-car Train 659, engulfing it in fire and smoke. They are:
Walter Liedtke, 69, of Bedford Hills, a curator and art historian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
Eric Vandercar, 53, of Bedford, senior managing director and head of municipal funding at Mesirow Financial in Manhattan.
Joseph Nadol, 42, of New Castle, a managing director and aerospace and defense industries analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Manhattan.
Robert Dirks, 36, of Chappaqua, a research scientist at D.E. Shaw Research in Manhattan.
Aditya Tomar, 41, of Danbury, Conn., a vice president for technology with JPMorgan Chase & Co.”™s asset-management team in Manhattan, according to Bloomberg Business.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo”™s office said Commerce Street in Valhalla would remain closed to vehicular traffic until the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation of the crash. Investigators were expected to wrap up their work Thursday afternoon.
