Story highlights Derailment victim "did what was necessary" to help his family, councilman says 
 
 Locomotive was pushing cars at the time of the crash, NTSB says 
 
 Gov. Andrew Cuomo discounts curve's role in the crash 
 
 Investigators have recovered a recorder from the locomotive and another car, NTSB says 
 
 A commuter train derailed in a curve in the New York borough of the Bronx on Sunday, killing four people and leaving dozens hurt, investigators said. 
 
 All seven passenger cars and the locomotive jumped the tracks near the Spuyten Duyvil station, about 10 miles north of Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal, the National Transportation Safety Board reported. Three of the dead were thrown out of the train as it "came off the track and was twisting and turning," New York Fire Department Chief Edward Kilduff told reporters. 
 
 Surviving passenger Amanda Swanson told CNN the windows of the coaches broke out, and "the gravel came flying up in our faces." 
 
 "I really didn't know if I would survive," said Swanson, who put her bag in front of her face to block the rubble. "The train felt like it was on its side and dragging for a long time. ... The whole thing felt like slow motion." 
 
 The train was en route to Grand Central from Poughkeepsie, 74 miles up the Hudson River, when it derailed about 7:20 a.m., NTSB member Earl Weener said Sunday. At least 67 people were injured, said Joe Bruno, New York's commissioner of emergency management, and 11 remained in critical condition Sunday evening, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters. 
 
 The diesel locomotive was pushing passenger cars through a 30-mph curve north of the station at the time of the crash, Weener said. He said that configuration is one of many things investigators will be examining as they try to determine the cause of the wreck. 
 
 Investigators have recovered an event recorder from the locomotive and another car but haven't yet examined them, Weener said. 
 
 "Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened, with the intent of preventing it from ever happening again," he said. 
 
 About 150 people were on the train when it derailed, said Laureen Coyne, director of risk management for New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority, which includes the Metro-North railroad. One car came to rest just feet away from the Harlem River. 
 
 "I heard this horrible, whooshing sound. ... It was very disturbing, very loud," said Hank Goldman, who lives near the tracks. "I jumped out of bed and looked out the window and I saw a light-colored object lying down. I thought it was the roadway to the train. Then I got my binoculars, and I couldn't believe my eyes, that the train had jumped the tracks right here." 
 
 New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority identified the dead as Donna L. Smith, 54, of Newburgh, New York; James G. Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring, New York; James M. Ferrari, 59, of Montrose, New York; and So Kisook Ahn, 35, of Queens, New York. 
 
 Lovell did freelance audio and was headed into New York to work Sunday morning, said Dave Merandy, a town council member in the Hudson Valley community of Philipstown. 
 
 "He loved his family and did what was necessary to keep things afloat with his family. He was a great man," said Merandy. 
 
 Lovell's wife, Nancy Montgomery, sits on Philipstown's council, and Merandy and Lovell were high school classmates, Merandy said. He leaves behind three sons and a daughter from a previous marriage. 
 
 "We're just shocked. Completely shocked," Merandy said. 
 
 The Metro-North Hudson Line had a ridership of 15.9 million last year, with hundreds of people riding the packed trains during weekday rush hour, officials said. 
 
 The train operator -- who is among the injured -- told investigators he applied brakes to the train, but it didn't slow down, a law enforcement official on the scene and familiar with the investigation said. 
 
 "That will be a key point of concern, whether this train was moving too quickly," Bruno said. 
 
 A freight train derailed in the same curve in July, damaging about 1,500 feet of track, the MTA reported at the time. Weener said the NTSB would look into whether there was any connection between that derailment and Sunday's crash, but both he and Cuomo discounted the possibility. 
 
 "The curve has been here for many, many years, right, and trains take the curve every day, 365 days a year ... We've always had this configuration. We didn't have accidents," Cuomo said. "So there has to be another factor, and that's what we want to learn from the NTSB." 
 
 Investigators will look at the condition of the track, the signal system, crew performance and other factors. They'll also search for data and video recordings that may have captured details tied to the derailment, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said. 
 
 "We've got a lot of work to do," she said. "We don't have a lot of daylight hours to do it, but we're going to do as much as we can." 
 
 Passenger: Train stopped with a thud 
 
 The incident quickly sparked chatter on Twitter and drew a crowd of onlookers to the scene. Passenger Frank Tatulli told WABC he thought the train was traveling "a lot faster" than usual. 
 
 He escaped a derailed car on his own and had head and neck injuries, he said. Other passengers were still on the train, he told WABC. 
 
 Another survivor told WABC that she climbed out of a train car that had overturned. Nearby, she said, she heard injured victims moaning and asking for help. 
 
 "I almost feel guilty," she said. "I was just in a really safe spot on the train, just the way it fell." 
 
 Swanson told CNN the train car she was in came to a stop with a thud. 
 
 "I just closed my eyes and kind of hoped to God that I was going to be able to call my mom with decent news," Swanson said. She got off the train with her cell phone in hand: "The screen was shattered, but it still worked," she said. 
 
 Among those hurt, one suffered a spinal cord injury that could leave him paralyzed from the neck down, said Dr. David Listman, director of the emergency department at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. 
 
 New York-Presbyterian Hospital said it was treating 17 patients, four of whom were in critical condition. 
 
 Federal authorities are also investigating another Metro-North incident in which two passenger trains crashed during rush hour in Connecticut in May. 
 
 Though no connection between the incidents has been established, one state lawmaker said Sunday that the derailments are a sign that federal investigators should examine track conditions throughout the region. 
 
 "It is important that the entire regional track infrastructure be examined to identify any chronic issues that have led to past derailments or could lead to future derailments in order to ensure the safety of the millions of people who use the trains every single day," New York State Sen. Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. said in a statement. 
 
 Service was suspended Sunday on part of the Hudson Line and won't be resumed until the NTSB finishes documenting the scene and returns the track to the MTA for repairs, Cuomo said. 
 
 "I think it's fair to say tomorrow, people who use this line should plan on a long commute or plan on using the Harlem Line," Cuomo said. 
 
 Amtrak trains were suspended between New York and Albany for hours after the derailment. On Sunday afternoon officials said service would resume with restricted speeds in the area. "Some delays can be expected," Amtrak said. ||||| Media caption Emergency workers were on the scene quickly after the crash 
 
 The US authorities have begun an investigation into the causes of Sunday's train crash in the Bronx area of New York in which four people were killed and more than 60 injured. 
 
 The 05:54 from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station derailed as it went into a bend in the railway line near Spuyten Duyvil station. 
 
 It was reportedly travelling faster than the speed limit in the area. 
 
 The train's event recorder, similar to a flight recorder, has been recovered. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to the site with instructions to inspect the overturned cars and interpret information from the recorder. They are expected to be there for several days. 
 
 'Spinal injury' 
 
 The Federal Railroad Administration has also sent a team of investigators. 
 
 Officials have identified the deceased as Donna Smith, 54, James Lovell, 58, James Ferrari, 59, and Ahn Kisook, 35. Three of the dead were found outside the train, and one was found inside. 
 
 Of the 150 or so who were on board, 11 remain critically injured. 
 
 Image caption The train appeared to be going "a lot faster'' than normal as it approached the curve, one passenger said 
 
 Image caption One of the derailed carriages ended up very close to the water where the Hudson and Harlem rivers meet 
 
 Image caption Dozens of firefighters arrived at the scene to free trapped passengers 
 
 Image caption The injured were ferried to local hospitals 
 
 One man suffered a spinal cord injury that could leave him paralysed from the neck down, a doctor told CNN. 
 
 On Monday, a second data recorder was found in the train's rear locomotive. Investigators said they hoped to download information on the speed and settings of the train from that recorder. 
 
 Some 26,000 weekday commuters on the route were warned to brace for crowded trains on the first morning after the derailment. 
 
 Train service south of Spuyten Duyvil has been "suspended until further notice", the train's operator, Metro-North, said on Monday morning. Buses were being provided to the New York subway system. 
 
 Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said the bend where the derailment occurred was in a slow-speed area. 
 
 The train appeared to be going "a lot faster" than normal as it approached the bend coming into the station, passenger Frank Tatulli told WABC-TV. 
 
 The speed limit on the curve is 30mph (50km/h), compared with 70mph in the area approaching it, investigators said. 
 
 Media caption Earl Weener, NTSB: "We've okayed the uprighting of the cars to look for any possible further injury or fatalities" 
 
 Media caption Two eyewitnesses who live in the area describe the scene 
 
 Media caption Doctor Howard Katz says some of the injured had wounds "full of dirt" 
 
 Metro-North serves commuters from New York City's northern suburbs. It is not part of the New York City subway system. 
 
 The accident was the second passenger train derailment this year for Metro-North, which, until Sunday, had never experienced a passenger death in an accident in its 31-year history. 
 
 On 17 May, an eastbound train derailed in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was struck by a westbound train. The crash injured 73 passengers, two engineers and a conductor. 
 
 Eleven days later, a track foreman was struck and killed by a train in West Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 A freight train derailed near the same location as Sunday's accident in July, damaging about 1,500ft (457m) of track. No-one was hurt. ||||| Investigation Into Metro-North Derailment Begins View Full Caption 
 
 MANHATTAN — Investigators believe the motorman at the controls in the deadly Metro-North Railroad derailment in the Bronx Sunday dozed off for a few fateful moments and woke up too late to stop the speeding train from hurtling off the tracks, DNAinfo New York has learned. 
 
 Veteran engineer William Rockefeller all but admitted he was falling asleep as the train came roaring to a curved section of track north of Spuyten Duyvil in statements made shortly after four people were killed and dozens were injured in the wreck, sources said. 
 
 He apparently woke up just as the train, traveling at 82 mph, was heading into a precarious curve that called for the train's speed to be reduced to just 30 mph. 
 
 As the train entered the curve, sources said, Rockefeller was jolted from his sleep and hit the brake, but not in time. The cars derailed, and several careened onto their sides before grinding to a halt on the edge of the Harlem River. Four people were killed, three of whom were thrown out of the cars, and more than 60 others were injured. 
 
 Rockefeller, 46, has been an engineer for roughly 11 years and a Metro-North employee for 20 years, and has an unblemished record. 
 
 Sources said he took a drug and alcohol test, and they do not believe either was a factor in the crash. 
 
 They declined to provide details of Rockefeller’s statements, which were given within minutes of the disaster, when paramedics and investigators arrived at the scene to offer assistance and try to learn what happened. 
 
 Prosecutors subpoenaed Rockefeller’s cellphone, but sources said they do not believe he was using it at the time of the tragedy. 
 
 Instead, sources said he virtually admitted that he fell asleep as the train roared through a straight, 70 mph zone, heading toward one of the sharpest curves on the 75-mile trip that started at 5:54 a.m. in Poughkeepsie, bound for New York City. 
 
 They believe the rumbling of the train roaring through the head of the curve awakened Rockefeller and he hit the brake immediately. 
 
 National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said at a press conference Monday the brakes were engaged, but “very late in the game” — only six seconds before the crash. And he would only say it was unclear if the speed was the result of human error or faulty equipment. 
 
 Sources could not immediately explain why Rockefeller became fatigued as he neared Spuyten Duyvil. They said they had no initial reason to believe he had been overworked or was out late the night before. 
 
 Rockefeller was among those released from the hospital Monday. He remained in seclusion as the crippled trains were being righted and placed back onto the tracks, which were also being repaired Monday. 
 
 Union officials said Rockefeller was thoroughly traumatized by the tragedy and was cooperating fully with investigators. 
 
 Friends and colleagues described him as a sincere, hardworking man who was always serious and responsible about his job. 
 
 The NTSB has been urging railroads for decades to install technology that can stop wrecks caused by excessive speed or other problems, including those that can automatically slow trains through curves. Metro-North has been trying to make the costly purchase and install the equipment.
– At least four people are dead and 63 hurt after a Metro-North passenger train derailed on a curved section of track in the Bronx this morning, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says, according to the AP. Metropolitan Transportation Authority police say the train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station in a "slow speed area," and one passenger says it seemed to be traveling "a lot faster" than usual as it approached the sharp curve. The train operator, who was injured, told investigators he tried to apply the brakes but the train wouldn't slow, CNN reports. Seven of the eight cars derailed just 100 yards from the station, and at least two flipped onto their sides. Three of the dead were thrown from the train, and the fourth was found inside. Police divers were searching for victims in the Harlem River, feet away from one of the cars, as cadaver dogs searched through the wreckage, but police think all the passengers have now been accounted for. The southbound Hudson Line train had left Poughkeepsie at 5:54am and was scheduled to arrive at Grand Central Terminal at 7:43am. NTSB investigators are headed to the scene. (A freight train also derailed in New Mexico yesterday, killing its three operators when it plunged down a ravine.)