Metro-North Victims Mourned as Injured Treated at Hospitals

Four poeple were killed and at least 67 people were injured, 11 critically

Family members and friends of passengers aboard a Metro-North train that derailed in the Bronx Sunday mourned those who died in the accident, while the dozens who were injured were treated at hospitals.

The MTA had identified four people who died by early Sunday evening: Jim Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring, N.Y.; James Ferrari, 59, of Montrose, N.Y.; Donna Smith, 54, of Newburgh, N.Y., and Ahn Kisook, 35, of Queens.

Authorities said more than 60 people were injured, 11 of them critically, the train from Poughkeepsie derailed at about 7:20 a.m., just feet from the Harlem River as the train was rounding a curve about 100 yards north of the Spuyten Duyvil station.

Neighbors grieved the loss of Jim Lovell and Donna Smith in their Hudson Valley towns.

"There's a huge hole in the heart of this town tonight," said Richard Shea, who was a childhood friend of Lovell's.

Lovell was an audio technician for NBC's Today show who had taken the early morning train to help set up the Christmas tree lighting in Rockefeller Center this week.

Cindy and Kathy Cerone, who lived next to Smith for more than a decade, described her as a dedicated member of the community who worked two jobs.

"She was very giving, very giving and loving and she cared about people," said Kathy Cerone. "She cared. And she was a good friend and a good neighbor."

Four city hospitals treated the dozens of people injured in the accident. 

At Saint Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, 10 victims were being treated. Among those patients, two were in critical condition, including a 21-year-old woman with an open leg fracture and a 43-year-old man with a spinal cord injury who was riding the train with his son. The man's son suffered bumps and bruises.

An off-duty NYPD officer who had been on the train is also at the hospital in stable condition. 

Fourteen victims were taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in upper Manhattan, including two who were critically injured.

William Herbert arrived at the hospital early Sunday afternoon to see his wife Maria, an assistant conductor who suffered various injuries to her ribs, head and shoulders.

"Thank God she's alive and thank God a lot of people lived through that because if that train went in the water that would have been it," Herbert said.

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