LIRR Accident History: 6 Times Long Island Railroad Trains Have Crashed or Derailed

At least 103 people were injured Wednesday morning when a Long Island Railroad commuter train crashed at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. While none of the injuries were life-threatening, it’s hardly the first time an LIRR train has crashed.

Trains have been derailing and colliding on the LIRR since its inception in 1834. In fact, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), which runs the LIRR, gets sued so often that in 2009, the company delegated upwards of $1.5 billion dollars to bail them out. The MTA receives about 3,000 liability claims every year, amounting to 12 a day, according to a report by the New York Post.

January 2017: Details from Wednesday’s crash were still scarce, though New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the train was supposed to stop at a bumper in the station but didn’t. At least 103 people were injured, according to the Fire Department, the worst of which was a broken leg.

October 2016: An LIRR train derailed in New Hyde Park and injured 33 people, including four serious injuries which required surgery for at least one person. A commuter train heading east on the railroad sideswiped a work train also traveling east and caused the commuter train to derail. Three cars were damaged in the accident.

July 2015: Though no injuries were reported, a derailment caused delays in July 2015 when an LIRR train sideswiped another train outside Jamaica Station in Queens.

March 2008: A derailment at Jamaica Station in Queens occurred when the last two cars of a train jumped the track and hit the rear two cars of another train. About 24 people had minor injuries following the crash.

March 2004: In what an LIRR spokesman called a “freak accident,” a runaway train became unhinged from the train cars it was attached to and rolled down the track, plowing into cars and seriously injuring four people. The unmanned train eventually came to a stop after it crashed into a maintenance area on a track, giving workers in the area just enough time to run away before a welding truck exploded and stopped the train.

February 1950: In the worst crash in LIRR history, two commuter trains collided head-on in Rockville Center on Long Island. Thirty people were killed and at least 80 were injured in the accident.