Motorist Identified in Monday's Plunge Onto Metro-North Tracks

It was back to business as usual for commuters on the New Haven line this morning after a bizarre traffic accident caused headaches for thousands during Monday night's commute.

"We are up and running perfectly fine," said MTA spokesman Dan Brucker. "No delays, no problems."

On Monday evening, a female driver, identified as 21-year-old Stephanie Cacho, pitched off an overpass in Mount Vernon, N.Y., crashing some 30 feet down onto the New Haven line tracks and defying almost certain death amid four sets of rails - each with 600 volts of direct-current electricity.

Cacho survived the crash, but her 1999 Jeep remained on the tracks until about midnight Tuesday morning.

"It was not New Haven line commuters' lucky day, but it sure as hell was her lucky day," Brucker said Monday evening.

Commuters from all around Westchester, N.Y. and Fairfield counties were affected, bound for stations such as Harrison, Rye, Greenwich and Fairfield, with train service stopped completely for about 45 minutes in both directions, until 8:32 p.m. Monday, which is when service resumed at a reduced pace. Full service was not restored until after midnight Tuesday.

The vehicle went through a heavy fence near the guardrail of the overpass at the intersection of South 6th Street and West 1st Street in Mount Vernon at the Mount Vernon East Station.

A flat car was brought in overnight to clear the tracks for the estimated 69,000 customers that use the New Haven line for their daily commute, Brucker said.

The chain of events that happened after the driver lost contact with the road were simply "astounding," Brucker said.

"Her motor car somehow missed contact with four 600-volt, direct-current rails. She survived the accident. Her car didn't explode and she was not immolated because of the [likely] fire," he said. "It's astounding the car didn't explode on contact with the third rail."

He also noted that Cacho missed being hit by a train.

"She survived almost four or five definite catastrophes that could have happened from this accident," he said.

Although there was some damage to some third rain brackets where the car had crashed, Brucker said that all of the damage caused by the accident had been cleared.

"It is very infrequent, but this has happened before," he said. "Everything was repaired, done fixed."