THE BRONX — The bleary-eyed motorman of the Metro-North train that derailed in Spuyten Duyvil last December — killing four people — fell asleep at the controls before making a turn, causing the seven-car train to come off the rails, federal officials said Tuesday.
Officials confirmed that William Rockefeller was asleep when he took a 30 mph curve at 82 mph on Dec. 1 around 7:20 a.m. DNAinfo first reported the cause days after the derailment.
He was suffering from sleep apnea brought on by obesity and a recent drastic switch in his work schedule, the National Transit Safety Board confirmed Tuesday.
“The National Transit Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the engineer’s noncompliance with the 30-mph speed restriction because he had fallen asleep due to undiagnosed severe obstructive sleep apnea exacerbated by a recent circadian rhythm shift required by his work schedule,” the NTSB said in a report issued Tuesday on railway safety.
The derailment left 61 people injured and caused more than $9 million in damages.
Two weeks before the accident, Rockefeller switched to a 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. start time after two years beginning his shift in the late afternoon.
He told investigators he was feeling “dazed” or “hypnotized” before the derailment and failed to hit the brakes, according to the report.
The investigation ruled out signal malfunctions, track conditions and mechanical conditions as factors in the accident.
The NTSB has made several suggestions to Metro-North — like putting inward- and outward-facing audio and image recorders — on trains since the crash.
“What happened at Metro-North is a wakeup call that has been sent from one side of America to the other,” Sen. Charles Schumer said.
“Safety has to be on their minds every day, whether there’s an accident that day or not.”
