LIRR probes why car missed platform and doors opened

An LIRR train car opened up over the elevated tracks in Merrick after stopping short of the platform Wednesday night, an incident under investigation Thursday by the MTA.

“The doors open and someone goes, ‘Whoa!’ ” said commuter Billy Fleming, recounting the Wednesday night mishap. “Everybody stopped. You look out, and there’s nothing there. There’s a drop-off. You’re over the parking lot.

“It’s a long way down.”

Once on the platform, which he reached by moving up a car, Fleming snapped a photo showing the eastbound 5:40 p.m. train out of Penn Station — several yards above parked vehicles. No announcements warned riders, he said, and no crew member came to check.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority acknowledged receiving a report of the Long Island Rail Road incident but provided no additional details, including whether the crew reported the problem.

“It’s under investigation,” said spokesman Aaron Donovan.

But an MTA source said the engineer was not paying attention and that no member of the crew reported the incident back to their bosses.

Platforms have cues or signs telling the engineer where to stop, the source said, and why the engineer missed his mark in Merrick was not clear Thursday. It’s also not clear if the engineer is still working on a train, but in other investigations, workers have been placed on modified duty, off the trains, until the findings are in.

Fleming, 55, a food service company employee with three daughters, said he takes the same train often to his Merrick home and rides the last car because it stops near the staircase he uses to get to the parking lot.

That night, the crew seemed unaware of the problem, the commuter said, and when he pushed the emergency button in the car no one came.

He said he was the second person behind the door Wednesday night when the doors opened up to air. The passengers moved to the next car to get out, he said.

But Fleming said he was so worried of a repeat at the next station that he called 911, which forwarded him to MTA police, where he got a voice mail. He called back and hit the emergency number and got a live person.

Google images show the drop from the elevated track bed to the ground appeared to be about 15 to 20 feet down.

“I don’t know what the distance down is,” Fleming said Thursday. “But it’s deadly. . . . Let’s put it that way. It’s deadly.”

He questions the crew’s actions.

“There was nobody there,” he said. “And no one said anything. That was what was most disturbing.”

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”