Racing train became airborne
One dead, 100 hurt as many ask: Why was it going so fast into station?
— 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.
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. At one point, it became airborne — striking the ceiling of the station and sending debris flying and leaving electrical wires dangling dangerously overhead.
“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 co-operating 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 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.
Jamie Weatherhead-Saul, who was standing at a door between the first and second cars, said the train didn’t slow down as it entered the station. She said the impact hurled passengers against her, and one woman got her leg caught between the doors before fellow riders managed to pull her up.
Michael Larson, an NJ Transit employee working in the terminal about 30 feet away, said he saw the train come in fast, go over the “bumper block” and lift up into the air, stopping only when it hit the wall of the station’s waiting room.
As the train hurtled into the depot amid concrete dust and dangling electrical wires, “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said. Half the first car was destroyed, with some passengers crawling to try to escape, Larson said. Among other things, NTSB investigators will want to know whether the engineer was distracted or fatigued, said Bob Chipkevich, former head of the agency’s train crash investigations section.
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.