3 dead, more than 100 hurt in US train crash

HOBOKEN: A packed commuter train crashed into a station in New Jersey during the morning rush hour yesterday, with three people reported killed and more than 100 injured, many of them in critical condition.

The train failed to stop as it pulled into Hoboken station, causing major damage to the transit hub just over the Hudson river from Manhattan.

Michael Larson, a New Jersey transit employee, told CNN the train hit a concrete block at the end of the line with such force that it went airborne – hitting the roof, causing it to partly collapse.

“We have 100-plus injuries,” Jennifer Nelson, a New Jersey transit spokesman, told reporters at the scene, adding that there were “multiple critical injuries”.

NBC and CBS reported three fatalities from the early morning accident. No official toll was immediately available.

Nelson said there were around 250 passengers on the train at the time and that it was not known if there were still people trapped.

Passengers quoted by US media described the train ramming at full speed into the bumper at the end of the track.

“We never slowed down,” Jim Finan, a commuter from New Jersey, told Fox. “We ploughed, I mean, right through the bumper. Afterwards, there was panic. People were trying to smash windows to get out.”

Finan said it was an unusually crowded morning. “Everyone who was standing kind of went flying,” he said. “I saw a lot of head injuries and people with cuts.”

Nelson told reporters it was not known how fast the train was travelling as it entered the station and that an investigation was ongoing.

Emergency vehicles converged on the scene in response to the crash. – AFP