Today marks the anniversary of the Kew Gardens train crash, the worst disaster in the history of the Long Island Rail Road. On the evening of 22 November 1950, two heavily loaded commuter trains collided between Kew Gardens and Jamaica stations in Queens, killing 78 people and injuring 363. The tragedy unfolded in the middle of the rush hour, when thousands of passengers were making their way home from Manhattan, and its scale shocked New York City.

The chain of events began shortly after 6pm when a Hempstead-bound train of twelve cars left Pennsylvania Station carrying around 1,000 passengers. After passing Kew Gardens, the train slowed to about 15 miles per hour in response to a “Go Slow” signal. When the engineer applied the brakes, they locked and failed to release, bringing the train to a complete stop. Following the rules of the time, the brakeman left the rear of the train with a red lantern to warn any following traffic while the engineer investigated the fault.

Believing he heard the train begin to power up again, the brakeman mistakenly extinguished his lantern and reboarded, even though the brakes were still stuck. He had not been recalled by whistle signal, which was the required procedure. As a result, the stationary train was left without a warning light at its rear, and in the minutes that followed, it remained stranded and unprotected on the line.

Just four minutes after the Hempstead service departed, a Babylon-bound train of twelve cars left Penn Station, carrying roughly 1,200 passengers. It, too, received a “Go Slow” signal near Kew Gardens and reduced speed accordingly. Moments later, it passed another signal showing “All Clear”, which the motorman incorrectly assumed applied to his movement. Believing the line ahead was unobstructed, he began to accelerate to around 35 miles per hour.

On the stalled train ahead, the brakeman twice signalled that he was back on board but received no response, as the train remained immobilised. Meanwhile, the Babylon train was rapidly closing the distance. Its motorman applied the emergency brakes when he saw the other train ahead but was only able to slow to about 30 miles per hour before impact. The following train then struck the rear of the stationary one with immense force.

The collision caused catastrophic structural damage. The Hempstead train was pushed forward roughly 75 feet, and its last car was split lengthwise. The first car of the Babylon train telescoped into the stationary train, its superstructure sheared away as it drove upward, forcing part of the wreckage about 15 feet into the air. Remarkably, neither train derailed, but the destruction within the crushed carriages was severe.

Rescue workers arriving at the scene faced harrowing conditions. Many victims were trapped in mangled compartments, and witnesses described the wreckage as tightly jammed with bodies. Firefighters, police officers, and around 200 doctors from across Queens converged on the site to help. Cutting through the wreckage was slow and dangerous, and it took more than five hours before the last surviving passengers were recovered.

Investigators later concluded that the Babylon train’s motorman had misinterpreted the distant “All Clear” signal and failed to comply with the earlier “Go Slow” indication, while the brakeman of the stalled train was criticised for leaving his post too soon and removing the only warning protection. The findings highlighted how a sequence of human errors, compounded by equipment failure, could converge with fatal consequences.

The crash prompted sweeping improvements. The Long Island Rail Road began installing Automatic Speed Control the following year, a system designed to enforce speed restrictions directly and prevent similar misreadings. Its parent company, the Pennsylvania Railroad, launched a 12-year, $58 million modernisation programme, while state authorities established a temporary commission to review the railroad’s operations. The Kew Gardens disaster remains a pivotal moment in American rail safety, remembered for the lives lost and the reforms that followed.