National Transportation Safety Board investigators were at the scene of a Metro-North railroad crash on Wednesday, combing the icy wreckage of an SUV and a charred-out rail car for clues to what led to their deadly collision the night before.  “We don’t have a lot of hard facts we would like to give you,” NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt told reporters at a press briefing late Wednesday morning in front of the scene, where the wreckage remained on the Harlem Line tracks after the train hit the stalled vehicle at a crossing in Valhalla, New York.  Six people were killed, including the SUV’s driver and five others on the train. New York governor Andrew Cuomo said 15 people were still hospitalized, including seven in serious condition. It was the worst accident in the railroad’s history.  Sumwalt said investigators on scene, led by railroad accident investigator Mike Hiller, are collecting “perishable evidence” before moving the train as soon as Wednesday afternoon.  “We intend to find out not only what happened, but why it happened.”The train will be stored – though it’s unclear where – after being moved off the scene. Investigators will be on scene for between five and seven days, examining track signals at the crossing and nearby highway. Valhalla is a tiny suburban Westchester County town of about 3,000 people, the downtown hamlet being little more than a few shops lined up along the railroad station.The accident scene is wedged between the Gate of Heaven and Mount Pleasant cemeteries, an area crowded with gravestone retailers.According to media reports, the SUV was driving on Commerce Street near the Taconic State Parkway when it stopped on the tracks. The train struck the vehicle, leaving little more than a shell of an SUV crumpled in front of a burnt-out rail car.  The electrified third rail of the track tore through the floor of the first car of the train, charring the carriage and sending billows of smoke into the air.  “It’s actually amazing that not more people were hurt on that train,” Cuomo said.  Both are now covered in ice, and temperatures are expected to fall in the coming hours. The surrounding area already has about a foot of snow on the ground.Investigators said the snow should not impact the investigations significantly.  Thousands of commuters faced a snarled journey to work on Wednesday morning in the aftermath of the accident.  MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said roughly 45,000 riders take the Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem Line on an average weekday, about 14,000 of whom board north of where the crash occurred and would be directly affected. Parts of the line will remain closed on Wednesday, according to the MTA.  Several commuters said they were wary about riding in the front car of the train but others were unfazed. Peter Greco, a risk manager at a New York City office of BNP Paribas, said the only delay he encountered was a longer line at a White Plains parking lot.  “I don’t think riding in front will bother me,” he told Reuters.  Passengers described frightening scenes as the train was evacuated on Tuesday night.  “The smoke was orange coming off the train, it was still on fire at that point. The front car was billowing heavy smoke out of the windows and doors,” said Jared Woodard, an employee of BGC Financial in New York, who was on the train travelling home to Chappaqua.  A worker at a nearby Gulf gas station said commuters flooded in after the accident, a phenomenon that was strange since most walked from the opposite direction of the train station.  “Like 10 people came in here looking for a cab,” Nick Pinto told the Guardian. “When they’re all coming this way – something happened.”Later, Pinto said, more than a dozen commuters huddled in a nearby funeral home when he attended a scheduled wake.“That threw me way off,” he said.  Investigators in a wide variety of disciplines arrived on scene with the NTSB on Wednesday.Experts in fire science, medical records, survivability and traffic and rail signals were on scene, along with many others. Trauma experts also arrived to support families, Sumwalt said.Three-dimensional laser scanning equipment is on scene to photograph the wreckage, and the NTSB has requested high-definition aerial photographs.Interviews of witnesses are expected to start soon, especially of the train’s operators, but it’s unclear when because of the severe physical and mental trauma many likely suffered.While the NTSB usually issues a preliminary report in days, the final accident report can take upwards of a year. Sumwalt said he expects to report more facts to the public this afternoon, during another media briefing.The official presence of police, Metro-North officials and media representatives was huge.Around 30 vehicles of state and federal authorities lined the Taconic State Parkway and helicopters chopped overhead, as the parkway began to reopen before noon.Almost a dozen news vans lined Wall Street, a local road bordering the Taconic.The most highly trafficked business in the still secluded area is The Cliffs, a rock-climbing gym familiar to many Westchester teens. The area is bordered by trees, a cemetery and a commercial park with few if any residences.  Tuesday’s crash is the latest in a string of accidents involving Metro-North trains in recent years.  One derailed near the northern edge of New York City on 1 December 2013, killing four people and injuring 70. It was travelling nearly three times over the speed limit for the section of track where it crashed, investigators said.  Astorino made a distinction between that crash, which was the result of a train employee error, and Tuesday’s accident. But he said the latest incident was under investigation.  Earlier in 2013, two Metro-North passenger trains collided between Fairfield and Bridgeport, Connecticut, injuring more than 70 people and halting services.  The NTSB released a report late last year that identified common safety issues with the railroad following investigations into five accidents that left six people dead and another 126 injured between May 2013 and March 2014.  Reuters contributed to this report
Fifteen people remain hospitalised in deadliest accident in Metro-North Railroad’s history, which happened after train collided with SUV that drove onto tracks