A judge has sealed a more than $182 million settlement reached over a 2015 train-and-SUV collision at a suburban New York rail crossing that killed six people, according to reporting cited by The Associated Press.
The settlement involved Metro-North Railroad, and the Journal News reported it was reviewed before being sealed and was no longer available to the public. The majority of the Metro-North portion is slated to go to the families of five passengers killed when an SUV got stuck on the tracks in Valhalla, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of New York City.
AP reported that $79 million of the settlement will be paid to one specific passenger based on their projected lifetime earnings. Payouts to families of other passengers killed range from $35 million to $4 million, according to the Journal News review of the sealed agreement.
The crash occurred during the evening rush hour on Feb. 3, 2015, when the SUV drove onto the tracks while moving through backed-up traffic. AP said the crossing gate arm came down onto the vehicle, and the driver ended up driving further onto the tracks.
AP reported that the train smashed into the SUV at about 50 mph (80 kph) after the engineer hit the emergency brake only three seconds before the fiery collision. Parts of the railroad’s electrified third rail ripped off the ground, piercing the SUV’s gas tank and slicing into the train’s first passenger car, the report said.
A jury in 2024 found that Metro-North bore 71% of the liability for the five passengers’ deaths and injuries of others, and 63% for the SUV driver’s death. The jury specifically faulted the train engineer and the railroad’s oversight of the line’s electrified third rail, AP reported.
Andrew Maloney, a lawyer for some of the roughly 30 injured passengers, said the litigation should have ended sooner. “This should have never taken 11 years,” Maloney said Monday, adding, “They dragged it out.” Maloney also said the problems identified with the third rail’s design still had not been corrected years later.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement, AP said. In a statement, the agency said it has continued to work with state and federal transportation officials on “material railroad crossing safety enhancements throughout the railroad network over the last decade.”