(The following story by Eric Anderson appeared on the Albany Times Union website on November 29.)
ALBANY, N.Y. — An investigation into a collision last weekend between a Land Rover and two CSX freight trains cleared the train crews of any wrongdoing — and led to the filing of a misdemeanor charge against the SUV’s driver.
The Albany County Sheriff’s Department investigation also found both train engineers had sounded their locomotives’ horns and bells before they reached the crossing but those warnings went unheeded by the driver.
Peter Salerno was charged with failing to stop at a railroad crossing after a video showed his white Land Rover failing to slow as it traveled down Youmans Road on Nov. 22.
“It goes over the tracks, and then boom!,” said Sheriff James Campbell, describing the view caught by a video camera mounted in the engineer’s cab of the westbound freight train as it struck the vehicle at a rural crossing in New Scotland.
The collision pushed the SUV onto the adjacent track where it was struck again, by an eastbound freight train.
The Land Rover was destroyed in the crash, but Salerno and his two daughters suffered only scrapes and bruises.
On Friday, the sheriff’s department reviewed the CSX video with Salerno as they concluded the investigation into the crash. Deputies charged Salerno with failing to stop at a railroad crossing.
Investigators found that both trains had sounded their horns and bells, according to the black box recorders in each locomotive.
In addition, a video camera on the westbound freight recorded the accident. The train that first hit the Land Rover had blown its whistle for 20 seconds before the impact.
The engineer of the eastbound train, who also had sounded the locomotive’s horn and bells, applied the emergency brakes after seeing the first collision, but a freight train typically takes a mile or more to stop.
So with both train horns blowing, why didn’t the driver stop?
“He was looking to the left,” at the eastbound train which was farther away, Campbell said. “That’s where his concentration was.”
Campbell said he suspects Salerno didn’t realize it was two separate train horns, not one, that he heard as they blew simultaneously.
And when he looked to the right, it was too late. The westbound train was upon him.
Salerno is due to appear in the New Scotland Town Court on Dec. 18 to answer the misdemeanor charge of failing to stop at a railroad crossing.
The investigation also determined there were no violations of policies or procedures by the CSX engineers.
Reached at home Friday night, Salerno said he had been advised by counsel not to comment on the charge.