A New York dentist who as traveling to the Greater New York Dental Meeting sustained minor cuts and bruises after escaping Sunday's train crash in the Bronx that left four dead and dozens injured.
Joel Zaritsky, DDS, who practices at LaGrange Dental, told the Poughkeepsie Journal, "It was absolutely horrific. I'm so happy to be alive."
He suffered a deep cut on his hand that required stitches, and he was bruised on his head and one side of his body, according to the story.
Dr. Zaritsky said he was jolted awake as the train went around a curve. The car he was riding in tipped right, then left before flying off the tracks, he told the Journal. It then began to roll and violently throw him and his fellow passengers from one side to another.
Dr. Zaritsky was on his way to Grand Central Station when the Metro-North train derailed Sunday morning 86 minutes after he boarded it in Poughkeepsie. The train stopped just feet away from where the Hudson and Harlem rivers meet.
Dr. Zaritsky said first responders were on the scene within minutes. The seven-car train held about 100 to 150 passengers.
He described a "tremendous amount of people" being taken out on stretchers, with blood streaming down the heads of those who had been cut badly from going through train windows, according to the story.
"I still feel like I was in a dream," Dr. Zaritsky told the paper. "I have never been through anything so horrible in my life."
