Investigators, family perplexed over taxi driver's path through flashing crossing gates in fatal Manorville crash

One day after a Long Island Rail Road grade crossing collision that left a taxi driver dead and his passenger hospitalized, investigators were trying to understand why the driver apparently went through activated crossing gates into the path of a two-car diesel-engine passenger train bound for Greenport.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Wednesday its police investigation has ruled out that the taxi was stuck on the tracks before the crossing gates were activated. In a statement, an MTA spokeswoman said: "This was confirmed through a review of video evidence and witnesses from the scene."

An MTA spokesperson Wednesday afternoon said the driver, identified as Daniel Seagren, 49, of Ronkonkoma, "traveled through the lowered crossing gate, which bent upon impact, passing over the top of the car without breaking." Investigators previously believed the taxi drove around the crossing gates.

The collision occurred at the grade-level Wading River Road crossing in Manorville on Tuesday. The LIRR said the train involved was the 12:03 p.m. train from Ronkonkoma to Greenport. There were 46 passengers on board, none of whom were injured.

The unidentified taxi passenger, who fire officials said was in the back seat, was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he is in serious but stable condition.

The MTA said it has about 270 grade crossings on Long Island. According to the Federal Railroad Administration, 214 of those are in Suffolk. FRA data shows there are about 2,000 train-vehicle collisions annually nationwide — resulting in about 200 deaths a year.

The crossing is part of a long, straight stretch of single track — though the area is heavily tree-lined, possibly limiting visibility for drivers crossing that track.

Data from the FRA said the recommended train speed for that section of track is between 30 and 40 mph. The MTA could not say how fast the diesel was traveling at the time of the crash.

Seagren and his passenger had to be extricated from the crushed vehicle by firefighters from Manorville and Center Moriches using the Jaws of Life. He was transported to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead where he later was pronounced dead, authorities said.

Karl Ott, a general manager with East End Transportation, Seagren's employer, declined to comment. His wife, Christine Ott, said her husband and Seagren were lifelong friends. She described Seagren as "the kindest, most selfless, caring individual ever. He would give anybody the shirt off his back."

Marne Alberti, of Ronkonkoma, who said she was Seagren's common-law wife, said Wednesday: "This was a kick in the face for me." She said she'd last spoken with Seagren at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, when he called to see if she'd taken a Tylenol for her bad back.

Alberti said she met Seagren in 1996 and, other than a three-year period when they were separated, the two had been together ever since. She said Seagren  had "very bad eyesight," saying he was scheduled to have cataract surgery later this year.

She said he had a number of driving accidents. "He's gotten tickets for going through stop signs, he's misjudged turns before," she said. "He's gotten cellphone tickets."

Though authorities have not provided Seagren's driving record, Alberti said Seagren was prescribed glasses but rarely wore them. "I told him, 'Danny, you need to get your eyes checked. You drive for a living — you need your eyeballs.' " 

Alberti said she learned of the crash after she got a call from the company owner.

"I didn't cry," she said. "I think I was just in shock. You hear these things and you kind of freeze — a deer in the headlights kind of thing." Alberti said she only cried when her mother came by late Tuesday to comfort her. "I broke down," she said. "Now, it's something I have to come to terms with."