Federal regulators on Tuesday called for a national crackdown on drivers who ignore warnings at railroad grade crossings — after a third MTA train in the past month struck a vehicle, authorities said.
The Federal Railroad Administration said it is calling on police departments around the country to beef up the law enforcement presence at crossings and dole out stiffer penalties to drivers who ignore signals, said Kevin Thompson, an agency spokesman.
The announcement came the same day an LIRR train became the downstate New York region’s third commuter train in a month to plow into a vehicle, and the second LIRR train to do so in 24 hours.
The Long Island incidents come on the heels of last month’s Metro North crash in Westchester that killed six people — making it the deadliest accident in the rail line’s history.
On Tuesday, an LIRR Montauk branch train was heading east from Patchogue when the front end of the driver’s Ford Focus went beyond the lowered warning gate at Rider Avenue just after noon, the MTA said.
The oncoming train demolished the hatchback and dragged it.
“The car went airborne like it was a toy,” said Wayne Berry, who was headed to lunch when the crash took place.
“The driver just went through the gate like there was no train coming at all. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. [The car] got spun around and dragged like a rag doll.”
None of the 13 passengers aboard the train’s four passenger cars was injured.
The driver, identified as 67-year-old Garry Calderon of Shirley, LI, was rushed to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
His car may have skidded on ice into the path of the train, which was not moving at full speed, according to the Patchogue Fire Department.
The accident comes just a day after an elderly woman’s SUV was struck in East Rockaway on Monday by an LIRR train that swiped the front end of her car and propelled it off the tracks. She escaped with minor injuries.
In the Westchester tragedy, a driver accidentally drove her vehicle onto the tracks of a Valhalla crossing Feb. 3 and was killed by a train.
National Transportation Safety Board officials believe Ellen Brody panicked when the gate came down on her SUV as the train barreled toward her, and drove across the tracks in a bid to escape.
Five passengers on the train died when the electrified third rail sliced through the lead train car.