A woman was pulled from her car just moments before an oncoming Long Island Rail Road train slammed into her car and sent it flying across the tracks in Bay Shore, Suffolk County police said.
The driver of the car, Laurie Foulke, 43, of Islandia, was later arrested by MTA police and charged with driving while intoxicated.
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Nobody onboard the train was injured.
According to police, the woman was driving a Volkswagen Jetta south on Brentwood Rd. on Friday around 5 p.m. when she mistakenly turned onto the LIRR tracks heading westbound near Union Blvd. The Jetta got stuck on the tracks and she wasn’t able to drive off, police said.
Two Suffolk County police officers, Christopher Palazzo and Jereme Matthews, arrived at the scene and notified police dispatch, who then contacted the MTA in an attempt to stop the train, but the train was too close to the vehicle for it to be stopped, police said.
The two officers then made an evacuation plan to get other people to safety and then “pulled the woman out of her car while the train was speeding toward them.”
Police added: “The three ran from the tracks as the train careened into the car behind them.”
The train crushed the vehicle and it went flying across the tracks, police said.
Three hundred passengers were inside the Montauk-bound train at the time of the incident, a spokesman for the LIRR said.
Train service was suspended in both directions for nearly two hours. The LIRR restored eastbound service at 6:25 p.m. and westbound service at 7:09, the spokesperson said.
