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Surgeon Recounts Metro-North Railroad Collision

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - A surgeon from Yale-New Haven Hospital was on one of the trains involved in Friday night's collision on Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line and spoke to WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau about the exprience.

Not long after Dr. Dan Solomon boarded his eastbound train, it struck the westbound train that just derailed.

"It started to buck the same way it does when it's changing tracks, but it just kept bucking and it started to get a little more severe and at that point people started to get more nervous and bags started to fall down," he told Schneidau.

Surgeon Recounts Metro-North Railroad Collision

Dr. Solomon said smoke came forward and passengers from the back of the train scrambled to get out. Emergency doors were opened and the doctor sought out the most seriously injured, pulling one woman out on to the tracks.

"The woman that I had rescued was confused and lethargic and had weak pulses and I was concerned she had suffered siginifcant blunt abdominal and neurological trauma," he said.

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She was one of two passengers very badly hurt.

Solomon said the fire department acted swiftly to get the injured to the hospitals.

The doctor went onto Yale-New Haven and checked in for the night shift.

But he said he'll never forget the scene of wreckage on the tracks that evening.

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