I looked at Amtrak Status Maps this afternoon and saw that there were major delays on the Empire corridor across upper NY state. Saw on trainorders that there was a fatal grade crossing accident in Mentz NY, west of Syracuse involving Empire service #280(24) this morning.
Syracuse.com: State police identify Port Byron man who died in fatal train crash. Excerpt:
cnycentral.com with photos of a banged up #701 locomotive and remnants of destroyed van: Police identify driver killed in collision with Amtrak train.
Syracuse.com: State police identify Port Byron man who died in fatal train crash. Excerpt:
<sigh> Yet another grade crossing collision where the driver drove around lowered gates. This one on a pretty busy freight and passenger train corridor. If they don't have current plans to do so, NY state DOT should consider installing quad gates on all the grade crossings on the Empire corridor from Buffalo to Poughkeepsie. That or grade separate the crossing.Troopers say Mahunik, 48, of Port Byron was killed when his vehicle was struck by an Amtrak passenger train at the North Main Street crossing.
The crash occurred at about 6:50 a.m. Witnesses told troopers they saw a southbound work van ignore the flashing lights and horizontal bars on the crossing warning system on North Main Street and drive into the train's path.
The work van was struck by Amtrak train 280, the Empire Service, which was on its way east from Niagara Falls to New York Penn Station.
cnycentral.com with photos of a banged up #701 locomotive and remnants of destroyed van: Police identify driver killed in collision with Amtrak train.