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Valhalla train crash: SUV driver's husband speaks out

Alan Brody says the accident was preventable and that his wife, Ellen, was an "innocent victim." Others don't see it that way.

Khurram Saeed
ksaeed@lohud.com
Alan Brody, the husband of Ellen Brody, the driver whose vehicle was struck by a Metro-North train in Valhalla in February, stands at the Commerce Street crossing Nov. 27. Ellen Brody's Mercedes SUV was struck at this crossing after she drove into the path of the oncoming train. Brody and five train passengers were killed. Alan Brody has taken up the issue of improving railroad crossing safety.

Through early January, reporters will be looking back at and following up on stories and topics that were the most popular with our readers in 2015, according to metrics on lohud.com. This story is part of that series. 

What do you do in the wake of tragedy? How do you react when the person you love is at the center of blame?

For Alan Brody, the choice was simple: You fight.

Fight for your wife’s reputation. Fight for change. Fight because it gives your broken life a measure of meaning.

Ten months ago, Ellen Brody, a mother of three from Edgemont, drove her SUV forward onto the railroad tracks in Valhalla, just as a Metro-North evening express train barrelled her way at nearly 60 mph. The violent collision killed the 49-year-old woman plus five passengers on board the train after the track’s third rail broke loose and sliced through the first rail car, igniting a fire.

Four of the burned and battered train passengers killed lived in Westchester; the fifth was from Connecticut.

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Federal authorities haven’t released their final report on the crash's cause, only a summary of events, but some people on social media have already made up their minds. They’ve declared Ellen Brody guilty of ignoring warning signs at the crossing or more charitably, for being terribly careless.

“I can see why people, equally unfamiliar with the scene and stunned by the devastation, would look for a villain,” said Alan Brody. “But Ellen was the truly innocent victim. The villain is the authority that abrogated its duty to maintain a safe and properly signed crossing.”

An aerial views of the Metro-North train accident at the Commerce Street crossing in Valhalla from Feb. 4.

Speaking to The Journal News/lohud for the first time, Brody, 60, said his heart goes out to the other families that lost loved ones in the Feb. 3 crash.

A former marketing analyst who now connects start-up companies with investors, Brody believes technology could solve many problems at grade crossings. Even simple fixes like stringing lights along the tracks could make a difference, he said.

“When I look at that…railroad, I look at late 19th-century, mid-20th century technology,” Brody said recently over lunch at a Valhalla restaurant that sits alongside the Harlem Line.

Four years ago, he almost missed his Metro-North train while buying a ticket at the Scarsdale station kiosk. He wrote a blog post about the inefficiency of the process, wondering why it took eight steps to buy a train ticket when it only took a handful to purchase a subway fare in the city. He said his unique role in the current digital revolution provides the knowledge and contacts to change railroad culture.

"I know exactly what’s wrong with this," Brody said. "But not just that, I know exactly how to fix it. And I know the people who can do it and they’re not politicians, and they don’t work for the MTA. They are the innovators and the billionaires of America, and that’s who owns the future, not these clowns."

A number of lawsuits have been filed over the crash and more will undoubtedly follow, so juries may ultimately weigh responsibility for the accident. Like a pie, blame can be divided into portions — some smaller, some larger.

Ellen Brody

Manhattan attorney Robert Vilensky, who is representing three of 26 Metro-North riders hurt in the crash, said it would be a “stretch” to believe that Ellen Brody would bear no responsibility under the law. While past studies have raised concerns about the Commerce Street crossing, he said drivers are liable for being aware of their surroundings.

One eyewitness said the crossing gate landed on top of Brody’s SUV just as the crossing lights began to flash red. He said Brody got out of the vehicle, touched the gate, then moved the car forward slightly into the path of the train.

“If a gate comes down on your car, that’s an indication something is about to occur,” Vilensky said.

Eric Vandercar, 53, of Bedford Hills, was one of the five people killed aboard a Metro-North Railroad train after it struck a SUV at the Commerce Street crossing in Valhalla. The crash resulted in the third electrified rail to break free and it sliced into the first train car.

Vilensky has already taken the first steps toward suing Metro-North on the passengers' behalfs. He does not plan to name Ellen Brody in the lawsuits, saying her insurance company will create a pool of money that the court possibly could distribute to the various parties.

In May, The Journal News reported damage claims from the crash already exceed $325 million.

Alan Brody also wants his day in court to explore the events that led to the deadliest crash in Metro-North’s history, one that he believes was entirely preventable. He is suing the railroad, its parent agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Westchester County and others. The MTA has declined to comment on pending litigation.

Brody said his wife "exuded a joy for life" and by the end of a conversation would know your whole life story and even give you advice.

“She was kind of an every-woman but the kind of every-woman you’d want every woman to be as a person,” he said.

The couple would have celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in July.

Crossing a "black hole"

Ellen Brody normally took the Sprain Brook Parkway home from ICD Contemporary Jewelry in Chappaqua, where she worked as a salesperson and bookkeeper.

But on Feb. 3, a cold night with snow on the ground, she was on her way to meet a potential new client in Scarsdale.

She called her husband to ask for the best way to get there. He told her to take the Taconic State Parkway but didn’t know at the time that an accident on the parkway was detouring traffic in Valhalla. Their cell phone conversation cut out around the time she got on the parkway, Alan Brody said.

In a night full of unanswered questions, it’s not clear why Ellen Brody turned right, or north, from Lakeview Avenue onto Commerce Street when she was trying to go south. Her husband said her sense of direction wasn’t the best.

Before she turned, she passed over the Metro-North tracks. As she headed up the small dark road nestled between cemeteries, she encountered a sharp turn that led to the crossing, a few yards away from a traffic light at the Taconic.

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Brody said his wife had never driven that road and was likely “consumed by the madness of the traffic.” He said the crossing looks fine during the day but at night it becomes a “black hole” with no street lights and poor sight lines.

“It’s quite possible she passed through one railroad track and (thought) that was it,” he said. “You don’t expect to run through two railroad tracks in a night and certainly not in the middle of a cemetery.”

As Alan Brody was shopping in Costco around 6:30 that night, a lohud news alert popped up on his smartphone about a train-car collision in Valhalla. He said he tried to call his wife to tell her to find another way to Scarsdale.

The scene of the Feb. 3, 2015, Valhalla train crash that killed six people, including five from Westchester.

After he didn't hear back from her for hours, Brody drove to Valhalla. There, he received the devastating news.

Rick Hope, the driver behind Ellen Brody’s Mercedes-Benz ML350, has said she stopped just short of the double track as traffic was creeping forward. Then the lights flashed and the gate came down and slid down the back of her SUV. She got out to investigate and then calmly returned to her vehicle, he said.

There was no barrier in front of her, and the light at the parkway is supposed to turn green when a train is passing.

Alan Brody said his wife obviously felt a bump on her car but he believes she didn’t realize she had stopped on the tracks.

“If she was aware of what hit her, I guarantee you she’d have been out of there like a bat out of hell,” he said.

As soon as the SUV moved forward, the train hit it, sending the vehicle hundreds of yards down the track. Soon flames shot from the front of the train.

Rick Hope was stopped behind Ellen Brody's SUV on Commerce Street in Valhalla.

In 2009, the state transportation department added signs at the crossing but not additional flashing lights. The crossing also lacked warning bells, which are not required at crossings not heavily used by pedestrians. The DOT earlier this year sent The Journal News a heavily redacted report on the project that did not reveal any further details about perceived problems at the site.

Prior to the February crash, the only other fatality at the Commerce Street crossing occurred in 1984, before there were gates there.

Alan Brody said his three daughters, ages 23, 20 and 17, did not want to be interviewed for this story. But they spoke to the “Today Show” earlier this year about their anguish.

“I don’t know if knowing or not knowing would make it better,” Danielle, the eldest, said at the time about the details of her mother's last moments. “It’s just so unimaginable, and it feels so unreal.”

This fall, their father said, they found themselves with a huge bounty of apples from the handful of trees in their backyard.

Alexa, the youngest, started baking pies. Word got out and people asked for them. Alexa kept baking — she made about 60 in all. That simple act of sharing helped her cope with her pain and provided a special spiritual communion with others, her father said.

He and his daughters spent a quiet Thanksgiving with a few friends. Alan Brody said he mostly raked leaves in his yard.

Ellen Brody's daughters, from left: Alexa, Julia and Danielle Brody, speak with Matt Lauer during a Today show interview broadcast March 31, 2015. The three young women spoke about the Feb. 3, 2015, Valhalla SUV-train crash that took their mother's life and the lives of five passengers on the Metro-North train.

"Disruptive thinking" needed

Brody said he wants to use the tragedy to “make sure it never happens again.”

A native of Durban, South Africa, he describes himself with the Zulu word “vulindlela,” meaning one who opens the door. He has shared his story in the media. He has written about needed changes, and told his friends in the technology industry.

He said as a businessman he has helped the likes of Yahoo, DoubleClick and CraigsList change the way we live and work in the world.

Now he wants advanced technology to replace outdated crossing systems, but has no confidence that the industry or the federal agency charged to oversee them will lead the way.

He is hopeful others will take up the cause.

“I see my role as doing exactly the same with this problem,” Brody said. “It’s not just the railroads. It’s all the infrastructure that could benefit by applying this level of open, disruptive thinking.”

Alan Brody, the husband of Ellen Brody, the driver whose vehicle was struck by a Metro-North train in Valhalla in February, stands at the Commerce Street crossing. Ellen Brody's Mercedes SUV was struck at this crossing, killing her and five people aboard the train when the third rail dislodged. Alan Brody has taken up the issue of improving railroad crossing safety.

Railroads around the nation, including Metro-North, recently received a three-year extension to implement positive train control, a technology that can automatically stop trains before collisions. Brody complained that the rail industry has had to be dragged into making the expensive changes.

He pointed to other issues. For example, he said, X-shaped "Railroad Crossing" signs sit high above the roadway at grade crossings because they were designed to read by a man on horseback. Shouldn’t a second one be placed lower down at junctures like Commerce Street, where drivers come around a sharp turn?

Shouldn’t a strobe light on crossing signs be standard equipment? Why can’t the tracks have lights embedded in the ground, the way airport runways or suburban driveways are lit up? Why not add an amber light at crossings to caution drivers to slow down before the gates come down?

These products are all readily available and affordable to install, he suggests. But, he asks, why doesn't the industry reach out to Internet technology companies to build a better rail crossing? Why don't regulators demand the "Internet of things" becomes part of the solution?

Brody is not a religious man. But he believes the crash involving his wife “bears the hand of a higher power.”

It’s not a sacrifice he chose or applied for, but one he wants to use for good.

“There’s a mission here,” he said. “I’m happy to do it. It’s all I can do.”

Twitter: @ksaeed1