(Updated 4:50 p.m.): A man who drove in front of a Long Island Railroad train in Mattituck this afternoon died at Peconic Bay Medical Center, according to Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley. The man’s identity will not be released by Southold Police because the investigation is being conducted by MTA Police, he said. A spokesman for the MTA said late this afternoon he did not have any information on the identity of the driver or his condition.
Original story:
A pickup truck was hit by a westbound Long Island Railroad train at the Elijah’s Lane crossing at about 1 p.m. today.
The driver of the pickup was transported to Peconic Bay Medical Center for treatment of unknown injuries, according to Sal Arena, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The crossing gates were down and the truck drove around them onto the tracks when he was hit by the train. It had departed the Greenport station for Ronkonkoma at 12:42 p.m., Arena said. There were four passengers on the train who were uninjured.
Arena said he had no information on how fast the train was going at the time of impact.
“Presumably it was traveling at whatever the allowable rate of speed is there,” Arena said. The engineer “would have had no reason to slow down until he saw the vehicle on the tracks,” he said. “Then he would have tried to stop.
MTA police are investigating the accident.
The track has now been cleared for train traffic, the spokesman said.
