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WPCNR NEWS. February 3, 2015 9:30 P.M.: 

For about 3 hours now, emergency personnel have been responding to a Metro North Commuter Train-and motorist collision at the Commerce Street crossing (which is at grade of the railroad tracks).  The impact of the head cabcar hitting the Jeep Cherokee, pushed the jeep 10 railroad car lengths past the crossing..

The crash has left 6 dead and a 15 persons  (REVISED AS OF WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON) injured so far.  Local television stations have been showing live coverage of the rescue operations for several hours.

The train that crashed into the passenger vehicle, a Jeep Cherokee, was the 5:44 from Grand Central on the Harlem line.

According to an eyewitness report, a woman driving the Cherokee vehicle was attempting to proceed onto the railroad tracks following other motor vehicle traffic and was stopped by other cars in line waiting for the  traffic light to change, when the crossing gates  at Commerce Street lowered.

The driver of the vehicle immediately behind the Cherokee, Rick Hope, of the White Plains Department of Public Works, in a television interview said the woman,after her vehicle was trapped between the crossing gates,  exited her vehicle and attempted to raise the crossing gate in vain, then got back into her vehicle and the train struck the Jeep Cherokee on the driver’s side, killing her and pushing the car down the tracks  eventually setting the first car of the train on fire.

The situation continues to unfold with rescue personnel on the scene.