[2][4] While the engineer investigated the problem, the brakeman, traveling in the rear car, got out and held a red lantern to warn any train following, as per the regulations.
He then heard the traction motors power; believing that the brakes were now working and that the train was about to depart, he turned off the lantern and re-boarded the rear car.
[1] Many of those who survived the impact were trapped in the darkness, unable to move in the pileup of dead bodies, amidst the screams and wails of the dying.
[7] In the aftermath of the crash, all of the police detectives on duty in Queens were summoned to the site, as were 200 physicians coming from every hospital in the borough.
Police and fire personnel cut through the wreckage with torches, and used ladders to allow doctors and nurses to provide medical aid for those trapped inside.
[5] On November 25, Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York appointed New York City’s construction coordinator Robert Moses, former Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and former Justice Charles C. Lockwood on the Temporary Long Island Railroad Commission to conduct a "sweeping study" into all aspects of the railroad’s problems "in order to make it a safe, sound and efficient means of transportation.
"[12] The Commission issued its preliminary report on January 20, 1951, recommending state purchase and operation by non-profit public authority of the railway service.
[13] Dewey, however, opted for active state involvement in order to reorganize the bankrupt railroad and grant tax and other concessions to keep it continuing under private ownership under a Long Island Authority, provided that it would be able to attract new investments.