Major grade-crossing accident in Valhalla 2/3/15

After accident toxicology testing takes 60-90 days to run,depending on the state involved,results to the
Medical Examiner first,then the invesagating police personal,DA's office,and NTSB get the reports.
Then if any laws were broken,charges go on file at the court.

It's been ninety days since the accident happened and I don't think alcohol or drug use are going to play a role in this collision.

As for the cost of grade crossing elimination, $100 million per crossing sounds high. LIRR eliminated the Roslyn Road crossing in Mineola a few years ago and that cost about $25 million. Link There are twenty-seven grade crossings on the Harlem Line? That's a lot but how many are in third rail territory?

There're 9 public crossings between NW and Southeast,not including the crossing at Brewster station and
a crossing just north of CP Ride to then not built(back in '87) parking lot site.
There's 1 public Walkway crossing At Southeast to the Hi-level platform.

virginia rd
cleveland ave
lakeview ave
commerce st
stevens ave
roaring brook rd
greene lane
jay street
brewster hwy
but one you do one,
you have to do all or next lawsuit starts.

Thanks for the information on the number of crossings.

Based on following local news I think the Town of Mount Pleasant is at least considering the idea of eliminating the Cleveland Street crossing in Valhalla by just closing it. It looks like Roaring Brook Road may get eliminated, possibly with an overpass. That's in the Town of New Castle and the local leadership is on record as wanting to see it eliminated. There's also been talk about eliminating Commerce Street and Lakeview Avenue by combining them at a new location and building an overpass. I don't know about the others.

In a 2011 report New York State DOT said:

For the past ten years or more, New York has placed its warning device upgrade effort on public grade crossings located on passenger and freight mainlines. An additional priority of New York’s crossing program has been reduction of the overall number of crossings in the State. The above objectives have been borne out in the State’s crossing data: in 1975 there were over 4,000 public crossings; today there are only 2,687. Of those, 2,040 are equipped with active warning devices, while 600 have passive devices only. Link

the towns can have all plans they want, but until local populace approves their tax paid funding you will still see a crossing.

New Castle would like to see an overpass replace the existing Roaring Brook Road grade crossing. From a local news source:

New Castle Supervisor Robert Greenstein, whose community saw two of its residents killed [in the Commerce Street incident], sent a letter last Friday to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand requesting federal money to construct an overpass from the Saw Mill Parkway at Roaring Brook Road. He said it is a project that has been talked about for decades but the prohibitive expense has prevented the state and federal government from funding the project. News link

key words want, and requesting, they want overpass but want others to pay for it.
this why project is delayed for decades , simple as that.

Has the town(New Castle) asked for some $$$ from Readers Digest,for this overpass project,the back drive way
from the Campus empties on to that crossing,they would get the biggest benefit from it.

don't think readers digest is even in there anymore, and do they still exist?
ok they still exist but offices are now in new york city.

Correct Dutch, Readers Digest vacated the campus years ago. The last I heard is there are efforts to rezone the property retail and to put a strip mall in there.

Make a plan and ask for the money. Nobody gets loans and grant money without making a plan and asking.

The Reader's Digest site has been redeveloped as Chappaqua Crossing, an upscale office park.

Chappaqua Crossing is a one-of-a-kind multi-tenant campus featuring flexible office and medical space, unsurpassed tenant amenities, state-of-art technology, classic architectural design and beautiful landscaping and gardens. Link

I notice the NTSB prelim says that (12) 39' lengths of third rail were found inside the lead car. Given that the third rail is not load-bearing, is there a reason the first few joints near a crossing require steel fishplates to rigidly fasten them together? I would think some form of plastic joints designed to fail in event of violent impact might make it harder for 480' of third rail to be torn up and violently inserted into a railcar full of people.

Plastic joint plates do not conduct electricity ... kinda a problem when the rail in question is use for power ...