Car totaled after GPS takes it to LIRR tracks
FIREFIGHTER RONALD (Ronnie) Brenneisen, who died in September 2014 of 9/11-related cancer, was memorialized with a plaque at Ladder Company 43 firehouse in East Harlem on Friday.
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro attended the unveiling ceremony, which came on a day when no one needed a reminder of how dangerous a job firefighting can be. Firefighter Michael Davidson died early Friday after a blaze broke out on a Harlem movie set.
Department bagpipers A BEFUDDLED driver avoided injury Friday when her car was destroyed by a train after she followed her GPS and turned onto the Long Island Rail Road tracks, authorities said.
“She was listening to the GPS and she made the wrong turn,” Lino Ferrera, who manages the restaurant across the street, said.
The train pushed the four-door vehicle about half the length of a football field, burning it beyond recognition just before 8 p.m. in Mineola near the LIRR station, the commuter rail’s spokeswoman Nancy played “Amazing Grace” and Brenneisen’s granddaughter, Qanaya Bermudez, sang a chilling rendition of the Andra Day song “Rise Up,” which had several people in the small group choking back tears. The fallen firefighter’s daughter Jessyca Brenneisen recalled spending time in the firehouse, eating her father’s grilled cheese sandwiches. “I feel so honored to be the daughter of a firefighter. You all have the heart of a lion,” Brenneisen said. Gamerman said.
The disoriented driver turned onto the tracks at Willis Ave., but got out off the car before the collision, witnesses said.
“The train was coming and then she jumped out,” Ferrera said. “She was very lucky.”
The train engineer was also uninjured.
Video of the crash shows the car erupt into a fireball.
“We saw the car dragging on the front of the train, sparks and everything like a fire,” said Ferrera.