Did a Mercedes shifter contribute to the fatal Metro-North crash? 

"Highball!" (saabotaged) 02/06/2015 at 11:54 • Filed to: None

6

24

As a resident of Westchester County, a gearhead, and a railfan, I've been following the story of the fatal wreck between a set of Metro-North Bombardier M7s and a Mercedes SUV at a crossing in Valhalla, NY. According to witnesses, Ellen Brody got out of her Mercedes after the gates came down on the rear of her car. She examined the damage, tried to remove the gate but after she couldn't, she got back into the car. The witness behind her said a few seconds passed between the time she got into the car and the time the car drove forward towards the train, as if she was putting on a seat belt or doing some kind of task inside the car. The witness behind her kept trying to motion for her to reverse towards him and get away from the tracks, but instead the car went forward, and she was struck by the train. The car caught fire, the 700V third rail cut through the train car and pierced into the second car. 5 passengers on board the train, as well as Mrs. Brody died in this fiery crash (5 people required dental records for identification purposes) What went wrong?

This is the shifter on a Mercedes GL SUV. It is a column mounted shifter located to the right of the steering wheel. It is a bit short and I feel counter-intuitive. I'm a service adviser at an independent shop and see all kinds of modern cars with funky shifters. On this particular shifter, you push it up to go into reverse, down to go into drive (forward), the shifter rests in the middle and you have to press the chrome P button to engage park. Is it possible she meant to go into reverse but put into drive in a panic and drove onto the tracks? Its possible. Is the shifter the reason she was on the tracks to begin with? No, its probably not.

This is a tragic event where several events and decisions culminated in one of the worst wrecks of Metro-North's history. There are many questions. Did the third rail make this situation worse Were the plastics used inside the railcar accelerate the fire and make the smoke toxic? Did a shifter design out of Stuttgart contribute to a train/car collision in suburban New York? We may never know what really happened. My thoughts and prayers remain with the victims, their friends & families and those injured as well as the first responders and the heroic actions by engineer Steven Smalls, who did as much as he possibly could to warn and at least lower the speed at the time of impact, as well as pulling people out of that inferno and no doubt saving lives.

Snooder87 > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 12:06

11

What? No. Her parking in the middle of the fucking train tracks caused that wreck.

My dad has a benz with that shifter. It does suck, yes. And it can be counterintuitive. But that's not the reason for the crash. It's not like she was outside the gate and then drove into the intersection. She was already in a shitty place that she shouldn't have been.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > Snooder87 02/06/2015 at 12:11

4

Yeah I'm gonna go with "her not following the golden rule of only cross the tracks if you know you can clear them" is the reason all those people died

ClassicDatsunDebate > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 12:27

1

One could argue that it is easier to find a gear (especially reverse) during a panic situation with this shifter because you don't have to find a specific detent to find the gear. Slap up...reverse. Slap down...forward.

Twism > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 12:28

0

It's counter intuitive the very first time you drive them, but you get used to it after a few days.

So unless she got the car that same week, and it was her first recent Benz SUV, I would say that has nothing to do with it.

crowmolly > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 12:32

2

after the gates came down on the rear of her car.

This is the part of it that was the most stunning to me.

Signals start clanging ~30 seconds before the train shows. The gates fall maybe 15 seconds in.

Why was she stopped on the tracks in the first place? Cars in front of her? Even then I'd probably take the car into the weeds before I stayed on train tracks.

Rico > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 12:38

0

She should not have exited the vehicle and more importantly she should not have tried to beat the barrier from coming down after the red lights were flashing. If she was getting out of her car she should not have gotten back inside, reverse couldn't have helped since the barrier bar was already down.

E92M3 > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 12:39

3

Seems intuitive to me. Older cars with column shifters operate a similar way (reverse is at the top next to park, down to go into drive). If the Benz was configured the opposite way it WOULD be MORE counter intuitive. Sounds like she just panicked and made a deadly mistake.

Highball! > Snooder87 02/06/2015 at 12:39

1

I agree, she should have never found herself in a situation where the crossing gates came down on her car, but her car wasn't entirely on the tracks at that point.

Had she left the car where it was, maybe just the front of the car would have been clipped and the damage wouldn't have been so bad. She would have walked away, less a Mercedes and facing damages and possible fines and charges by the MTA Police Department, but would have been alive. The witness behind her says she drove forward as he was motioning for her to reverse away from the tracks. I believe its possible in the panic of the situation and her being unfamiliar with a unique gear selector she put the car in drive instead of reverse, driving towards the train.

Klaus Schmoll > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 12:40

1

Didn't she drive a Jeep of some sorts? At least that's what I read. But given the state of the wreck it's hard to judge what it once was.

And well, you can't really blame a shifter of whatever design for this. She stopped on the bloody tracks to see if she had any scratches or whatever on her car!!!!!!!!

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 12:56

3

Sounds to me like an idiot contributed to the Metro-North crash. Sorry., nothing else to it.

Sam > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 12:58

1

If only she watched Top Gear... she would have know to just ditch.

Snooder87 > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 13:10

1

And my point is, it doesn't matter. Everything that happened after she drove into the intersection and got caught under the gates is a direct and foreseeable result of doing so.

ranwhenparked > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 13:11

1

If the gate came down behind her car, and was close enough to it to cause damage, maybe she didn't think she had any room to back up, hence the pulling forward?

Aaron Brown > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 13:14

0

I thought I heard it was a Jeep Grand Cherokee?

Highball! > ranwhenparked 02/06/2015 at 13:55

0

Unfortunately we will never know her intent as to whether or not she was trying to back up or go forward. For as much as she could have been trying to beat the train and get across, she also could have been trying to put the car in reverse and back through the gates away from the tracks and erroneously put the transmission in drive instead of reverse.

Highball! > Aaron Brown 02/06/2015 at 13:56

0

It was initially reported as a Jeep Cherokee but later changed to Mercedes SUV. Im unsure if it was an ML, GL or GLK model though.

Highball! > Snooder87 02/06/2015 at 14:00

1

You're absolutely right, she should have never proceeded without being sure she could clear the tracks, however my comments are how the situation went from bad from worse by whatever actions led to the SUV from being moved from a position of being clipped or partially hit to pretty much putting in smack dab of the middle of the trains path.

RallyWrench > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 14:08

2

Tesla uses the same shifter. Teslas have been in fiery crashes. Coincidence? I think not.

I run an independent Euro shop, so I see a lot of these. I don't like any shifter that isn't mechanically connected to a transmission, but that's now the way it is, and for what it's worth these seem to work just fine, though there is often a frustrating delay between gear selection and engagement. They're a hell of a lot better than BMW's little plastic Playskool stalk.

Goodeveningofficer > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 14:48

1

You see them on the road everyday lollygagging along with a latte in one hand and an IPHONE 6 in the other imperiously barreling carelessly through the world in their rolling testament to class warfare acting like it's your job to watch out for them. Luckily she killed herself but sadly took the lives of this caliber of people with her (below). The accident caused the electrified third rail to burst into the train car and BBQ everyone inside. Dental records had to be used.

1. A senior managing director and head of municipal funding in the international sales and trading department at Mesirow Financial who graduated NYU Stern MBA, Wharton School of U Penn

2. A renowned art historian and curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, Brown University and a PhD at the Courtauld Institute in London.

3. A managing director and analyst for JPMorgan

4. A research scientist at D.E. Shaw Research bachelor's degree from Wabash College and a PhD in chemistry at Caltech.

Goodeveningofficer > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 14:52

1

I guess they can take the GL-Class off the list of zero fatality cars. In Tuscaloosa Alabama a Mercedes Benz mechanic is getting a ladder and resetting a days since incident to zero.

http://time.com/3688396/cars-t…

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 15:23

0

I very much disliked this in the E550 we had. It's unfortunate what happened, definitely. My opinion from having lived with one of these for a while is that the only way we could say that it played a part is like you said, she was panicked and put it in Drive rather than Reverse. Which is understandable considering the sheer level of panic that I'd imagine she was in.

My first week with that Merc, it rained a bunch and coming from an Audi which has the wiper controls here, I kept hitting the damn shifter.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Highball! 02/06/2015 at 18:21

1

I really don't get why automakers are going back to the 50s with crappy designs.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Highball! 02/07/2015 at 13:50

0

No. A string of poor decisions contributed to this. I've never had a single customer complain of these once they see how they work. If you want a softer to complain about look at some of BMW's offerings in the last few years, especially f80 m3.

Finegreensilk1 > Highball! 03/09/2015 at 01:49

0

I think she was simply oblivious to the danger and felt she had plenty of time, because she got back into her vehicle. A person who feels endangered would run like hell.

But, as you note, we'll never really know what was going on in her mind.