Metro-North Worker Killed
The MTA has been hit with a number of tragedies lately. Unfortunately the horrible trend as continued as a Metro-North worker was killed just west of the Rye station this past Friday. The Connecticut Post had more in this initial report:
A train struck and killed a Metro-North employee Friday night just west of the Rye, N.Y., station, a railroad spokesman said.
A police investigation into the incident stopped train service going west and east through the Rye station, MTA spokesman Dan Brucker said.
Metro-North reported that outbound service from Grand Central Terminal to New Haven resumed at about 8:25 p.m.
The train was traveling from Grand Central Terminal to New Haven when it struck the employee at about 7 p.m., Brucker said. The worker’s name was not released because his family had not been notified.
He was a signal maintainer and helped repair and maintain the signals that tell trains to switch tracks, an MTA spokeswoman said.
“He was a long-time employee,” railroad spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said. “Everybody knew him.”
Though service was restored, commuters were told to expect slight delays, she said.
His identity was not initially released due to his family not yet having been notified. Eventually his identity was revealed & the worker turned out to be 25 year veteran Kenneth McGrath. The Connecticut Post, courtesy of Frank MacEachern, once again had the report:
A New Rochelle, N.Y., resident with a quarter-century of experience with Metro-North Railroad has been identified as the rail worker killed by a train near the Rye, N.Y., station Friday night.
Kevin McGrath, 49, was a signal maintainer, railroad spokesman Dan Brucker said Saturday.
The accident occurred just south of the Rye station at 7:03 p.m. Friday, when a Metro-North train from Grand Central Station bound for New Haven struck McGrath.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority police were investigating, Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said Saturday.
The MTA runs and operates Metro-North and other commuter lines.
Anders said the death appeared to be accidental but said all circumstances will be investigated.
McGrath was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was transferred to the Westchester County Medical Examiner’s office in Valhalla, Brucker said.
The railroad, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration will participate in the investigation, Anders said.
The passengers were transferred to another train, Brucker said.
The accident delayed service a little more than one hour for 12,000 Metro-North customers, Brucker said. Twelve trains were halted to allow MTA police to investigate.
Click here for the complete report.
I would like to take this time to offer my condolences to the friends, family & peers of Kenneth. None of us ever like to hear or read about a hard working MTA employee being killed. Hopefully the streak of untimely deaths within the MTA family comes to an end.
xoxo Transit Blogger
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
My brother, Kenny (not Kevin) McGrath, was killed because trains were already held up due to signal problems. Conductors wanted to get home …their shift ending, and did not proceed slowly as directed. His partner was off working another job for MTA under another name. My brother, kind, loving, and hard working, died at age 49 leaving young adult children and a one year old grandson he adored.
I miss you little brother. You will always be my Sugar Plum.
This is Lana KENNETH MCGRATHs daughter it
seems that your page the post and various other sources think my fathers name was kevin when infact it is KENNETH MCGRATH. Me and my family are still very much grieving. He has 2 sons in the navy a daughter and 2 grand children and a wife of 18 years. We loved him and miss him very much he was a highly intelligent, thoughtfull and funny man. He was a second degree black belt who spoke Japanesse and was just taking on Spanish. He owned three rescue dogs and one cat. We rely miss him and he was a vibrant person with alot of life in him , Please have some consideration and change this page, Lana McGrath
Hello Lana,
Thank you for informing me about this. I will edit the page to reflect the proper name. Sorry for the delay in responding but I had taken the site offline for awhile.
Technology could have saved this workers life
I found an article on successful testing of the technology done by MTA a year ago:
http://gothamist.com/2007/05/12/mta_looks_at_re.php
Once I found this I looked up the company and found the BOMB SHELL video:
http://www.protran1.com/NewsVideo.htm
It looks like Metro North and MTA NYCT had successfull testing and dropped the ball. I checked and found out that Several other agencies have already implimented the technology after the two deaths to MTA workers except the MTA. I think its time to put the poetry away!!!
This stuff would have saved this workers life.