Right, it was the first crossing east of Syosset Station, not Westbury.
I was listening to the scanner when it happened. Moments earlier the railroad had a gotten a report from somewhere of a car on the tracks in the Cold Spring Harbor vicinity which turned out to be the wrong location. Divide tower operator was appropriately warning trains in the area, and was actually reading a slow order to a train over Channel 3 when it happened. Just as he finished reading the order, train 1742 told Divide that he had just struck that car at the Syosset-Woodbury Rd. crossing, that the car was on fire, requested power-off, etc.
One interesting note: When power was shut off the operator (either
Divide or 204) warned the train crew that because they had M-7 equipment they should wait 5 minutes before assuming that power was completely off. Apparently this is unique to M-7's 'cause I've never heard this said before in previous incidents. Can anyone here tell us what that's about? Why would it take 5 extra minutes for the train to "power down"?
Anyway, I also heard that the engineer requested relief; hope he (or she) is doing okay. Lucky for all that the driver of the car bailed out in time. Rough night in the heavy rain for everyone involved.