The agreement closes legal proceedings that a lawyer for injured passengers said lasted far longer than necessary, while safety concerns flagged by the crash — specifically the design of the railroad’s electrified third rail — remained unaddressed as of Monday.
VALHALLA, N.Y. — Metro-North Railroad has agreed to pay more than $182 million to settle lawsuits brought by the families of five passengers killed and roughly 30 others injured in a 2015 commuter train collision here, the Associated Press reported Monday.
The settlement, which the Journal News reviewed before a judge sealed it from public view, resolves more than a decade of litigation stemming from a February 3, 2015, evening rush-hour crash in which an SUV became trapped on the tracks at a grade crossing about 20 miles north of New York City.
A 2024 jury found that Metro-North bore 71 percent of the liability for the five passengers’ deaths and the injuries of others, and 63 percent for the death of the SUV driver. The jury faulted the train engineer and the railroad’s oversight of the line’s electrified third rail.
Settlement breakdown
About $79 million of the settlement goes to one passenger, based on their projected lifetime earnings, according to the Journal News. Payouts to the families of other passengers killed in the crash range from $35 million to $4 million, the newspaper reported.
Andrew Maloney, a lawyer for some of the roughly 30 injured passengers, said Monday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — which operates the commuter system and also serves parts of Connecticut — should have resolved the litigation sooner.
“This should have never taken 11 years,” Maloney said. “They dragged it out.”
Maloney also said that problems identified with the third rail’s design still have not been corrected.
The MTA declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement. In a statement, it said it has worked with state and federal transportation officials on “material railroad crossing safety enhancements throughout the railroad network over the last decade.”
How the crash unfolded
The collision occurred as backed-up traffic led the SUV onto the tracks while the driver was navigating the crossing. The crossing gate arm came down onto the vehicle and the driver ended up driving further onto the tracks.
The train hit the SUV at about 50 mph after the engineer applied the emergency brake only three seconds before the 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.