SCARSDALE WOMAN CAUSES DEADLIEST METRO-NORTH TRAIN WRECK EVER KILLING 5 PASSENGERS AND HERSELF

ELLEN SCHAEFFER BRODY

Whether she panicked or was just in a rush, her decision turned deadly for five Metro North passengers simply trying to get home for the night.

Ellen Schaeffer Brody, 49, a married mother of three girls from Scarsdale, triggered the deadliest crash in Metro-North history when she inexplicably pulled her​ Mercedes-Benz ​SUV ​onto the tracks right into the path of a packed, rush-hour commuter train whose operator slammed on the emergency brakes but could not stop in time.

Brody was driving home from her job at Israeli Jewelery Designs in Chappaqua — ​whose website touts the shop as a favorite of Bill and Hillary Clinton — when she approached the narrow, two-lane Commerce Street crossing over the railroad tracks in Valhalla.

The gate came down on her ​ML350 and she got out to look.

She then got back in the car and drove forward — even though the motorist behind her was yelling for her to stop, and was struck.

“I said to myself, ‘The clock is ticking here, the gate is down, the bells are ringing — what are you going to do here?'” Rick Hope told WNYW-TV. “She looked a little confused, gets back in the car and pulls forward on the tracks.”

The impact caused her gas tank to explode, killing her instantly and enveloping the first car of the train in flames.



Then, the 750-volt third rail speared the car, killing five men and injuring 12 others.