UPDATE (10:09 p.m.): NEWS10 has confirmed that Joan Bagley was killed instantly in the crash. Raymond Bagley was taken to Albany Medical Hospital after their car was dragged a quarter of a mile down the train tracks. Investigators will use footage from a camera aboard the train to figure out exactly how the collision happened.
By TARYN FITSIK, WTEN Staff
COHOES, N.Y.--"I heard a big noise and I heard an elderly woman screaming," says Joshua Cook. "All I heard was tires go "poof" and I heard an elderly woman screaming."
Joshua Cook's voice trembles as he recalls the minutes after the collision. He says he and Scott Rafferty witnessed it happen.
"They tried to cross and the train didn't see them," says Cook.
"This old lady and this old man swerved in and out of the caution bars," adds Rafferty. "They got stuck or something on the track, and they couldn't get out."
Witnesses say the train, headed south, collided with a car at New Courtland Street in the City of Cohoes, right near Burger King, shortly after 7 p.m. The car was then dragged a considerable distance.
Cook says he ran to the car and tried to help those inside.
"I tried to save him," says Cook. "I asked him if he was alright, he said "no, my wife". I opened the door, took the seatbelt off, and waited for the cops to come."
Many on-lookers gathered at the edge of the caution tape after the crash, but for Cook and Rafferty who say they saw it all happen, their emotions are raw.
"I don't how to take it," says Rafferty. "I'm just in shock. There's a knot in my stomach and everything."
"I don't think I'll ever come near the tracks again," adds Cook.
The accident scene (WTEN)
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