Engineer in fatal Metro-North crash awarded pension
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Metro-North engineer William Rockefeller has been awarded a federal railroad retirement pension a little more than two years after he fell asleep at the controls of a speeding Manhattan-bound commuter train, causing a derailment that killed four passengers and injured 60, The Journal News has learned.
Rockefeller will receive regular payments through the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board for an unspecified disability that has made it impossible for him to return to work as an engineer, Rockefeller attorney Daniel Seymour said.
“There are a lot of victims of this derailment and I think Mr. Rockefeller and his family are among them,” said Seymour. “But his thoughts first and foremost are with the passengers on that train. He’s haunted every day by this event.”
Hudson Line train 8808 was going 82 mph along a curved section of track marked for 30 mph when it derailed in the Bronx on Dec. 1, 2013. Several passengers were ejected from the seven-car train during the derailment.
Rockefeller’s work status has been in limbo since. He remains listed in Metro-North work logs as “out of service,” which means he is not drawing his nearly $100,000-per-year salary. Rockefeller, 48, of Germantown, had been an engineer for nearly 11 years at the time of the crash.
He has yet to face a disciplinary hearing but has been cleared of criminal charges by Bronx prosecutors. A federal probe determined that an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea, coupled with a recent shift change, caused Rockefeller to nod off at the controls. Seymour, citing the confidentiality of his client's medical records, would not say whether Rockefeller's sleep apnea led to the disability finding.
At the time it was the deadliest crash in the commuter rail’s history, with a death toll surpassed in February 2015 when six people were killed after a Metro-North train slammed into an SUV stopped on a grade crossing in Valhalla.
To date, Metro-North has paid out some $28.2 million in settlements and legal costs to cover claims filed by dozens of passengers injured as well as the families of the four who died.