Train Crashes at New Jersey Station; 1 Dead, 74 Hospitalized

Train Crashes at New Jersey Station; 1 Dead, 74 Hospitalized
Passengers rush to safety at the Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken, NJ., on Sept.29, 2016. (Pancho Bernasconi/Getty Images)
The Associated Press
9/29/2016
Updated:
9/29/2016

HOBOKEN, N.J.—A rush-hour commuter train crashed through a barrier at the busy Hoboken station and lurched across the waiting area Thursday morning, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others in a grisly wreck that renewed questions about whether long-delayed automated safety technology could have prevented tragedy.

People pulled chunks of concrete off pinned and bleeding victims, passengers kicked out windows and crawled to safety, and cries and screams could be heard in the wreckage at the station just across the Hudson River from New York City as emergency workers rushed to reach commuters in the tangle of twisted metal and dangling wires.

The New Jersey Transit train ran off the end of its track as it pulled into the station, smashing through a concrete-and-steel bumper. It apparently knocked out pillars as it ground to a halt in the waiting area, collapsing a section of the roof onto the train.

“All of a sudden, there was an abrupt stop and a big jolt that threw people out of their seats. The lights went out, and we heard a loud crashing noise like an explosion” as the roof fell, said Ross Bauer, who was sitting in the third or fourth car when the train entered the historic 109-year-old station, a bustling hub for commuters heading to New York City. “I heard panicked screams, and everyone was stunned.”

The train’s engineer was pulled from the mangled first car and hospitalized in critical condition. He was cooperating with investigators, Gov. Chris Christie said.

A woman standing on the platform—identified as Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, of Hoboken—was killed by debris, and 108 others were injured, mostly on the train, Christie said. Seventy-four of them were hospitalized, some in serious condition, with injuries that included broken bones, bumps and gashes.

“The train came in at much too high rate of speed, and the question is: ‘Why is that?’” Christie said. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said investigators will determine whether the explanation was an equipment failure, an incapacitated engineer, or something else.

Some witnesses said they didn’t hear or feel the brakes being applied before the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators. Among other things, they will want to know whether the engineer was distracted or fatigued, said Bob Chipkevich, former head of the agency’s train crash investigations section.

Investigators were working to extract the two black-box data recorders that would show how fast the train was going.

None of NJ Transit’s trains is fully equipped with positive train control, a safety system designed to prevent accidents by overriding the engineer and automatically slowing or stopping trains that are going too fast. Positive train control relies on radio and GPS signals to monitor trains’ positions and speed.

A commuter train barreled into a New Jersey rail station. (Associated Press)
A commuter train barreled into a New Jersey rail station. (Associated Press)