Car driving on LIRR tracks snarled travel Sunday
A car that drove on the Long Island Rail Road’s tracks near the UBS Arena caused major disruptions for thousands of holiday season train travelers Sunday, officials and riders said.
Photos and videos of the incident shared on social media captured the black Honda hatchback as it cruised along the LIRR’s tracks near the LIRR’s Elmont-UBS Arena station. The incident, which happened shortly before 5 p.m., caused the railroad suspend service in both directions between Jamaica and Hicksville for several hours. The LIRR, in service alerts sent to customers, attributed the disruptions to “police activity east of Bellerose” — the station just east of the UBS Arena.
Caught up in the mess was Marvin Kirschenbaum, who was returning from seeing a play in Manhattan with his wife and a friend Sunday evening. When he got off at Jamaica to change trains, he said he found a chaotic scene with few trains running and large crowds of travelers scurrying around looking for information, and a way home.
Upon returning to his Plainview home Sunday night, following two hours of delays, Kirschenbaum said he saw images of the car on what appeared to be an elevated portion of the LIRR’s tracks.
“I’m going, ‘I don’t even understand how that could be. What, did somebody airdrop a car on the tracks?” Kirschenbaum, 70, said. “That … is scary beyond belief.”
LIRR officials on Monday did not immediately respond to requests for more information about the incident, including how the car got onto the tracks, and how it eventually got off them.
Full service was restored shortly before 9 p.m., and there were no reported service issues during the Monday morning rush hour.
It’s not the first time a motorist has found himself driving along the LIRR’s right of way. The railroad in 2018 said it had begun to see significant increases in such instances as GPS apps on phones gained in popularity, and drivers, misunderstanding dictated directions, unwittingly turned onto the LIRR’s tracks.
In March of that year, a train struck a car that had entered the tracks at a crossing in Mineola, causing extensive damage to the vehicle and the tracks, and hours of delays. Police in that case said the driver misunderstood GPS directions and turned onto the tracks at the Willis Avenue crossing.
The rise in “unauthorized vehicles” on the tracks, as the railroad calls them, led the LIRR to expedite the installation of devices that more clearly identified railroad crossings, including reflective markings.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
