One dead and 108 injured after train station horror in New Jersey
● New Jersey service smashed through barrier into waiting room
Medical crews tend to the injured after a commuter train crashed into a railway station in Hoboken, New Jersey, during the morning rush-hour, leaving one passenger dead and another 108 people injured. The train reportedly smashed through ticket barriers and careered into a reception area.
A crowded commuter train ploughed into the bustling Hoboken station in New Jersey yesterday during the morning rush hour, killing at least one person and injuring 108 others, some critically, authorities said.
Rescuers worked in a tangle of broken concrete, twisted metal and dangling cables to reach bleeding victims, and passengers kicked out train carriage windows and crawled out to safety.
The incident happened as an arriving New Jersey Transit train smashed through a barrier at the end of its track and stopped in a waiting area. It apparently knocked out pillars, collapsing a section of the roof onto the first carriage.
Ross Bauer, an IT specialist who was heading to his Manhattan job from his home in Hackensack, was sitting in the third or fourth car when the train pulled into the station.
He said: “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, that turned out to be the roof of the terminal. I heard panicked screams, and everyone was stunned.”
The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending investigators to the scene.
New Jersey govenor Chris Christie confirmed one person was killed in the crash.
Hoboken, which is NJ Transit’s fifth-busiest station with 15,000 boardings per weekday, is just across the Hudson River from New York City.
It is the final stop for several train lines and a transfer point for many commuters on their way to New York City, either via ferries or a PATH commuter train.
None of NJ Transit’s trains are fully equipped with positive train control, a safety system designed to prevent accidents by automatically slowing or stopping trains that are going too fast.
The industry is under government orders to install PTC, but the deadline has been repeatedly extended by regulators at the request of rail companies. The deadline is now the end of 2018.
Jennifer Nelson, a spokeswoman for NJ Transit, said she didn’t know how fast the train was going when it crashed through the bumper.
Passenger Bhagyesh Shah said that the train was crowded, particularly the first two carriages, because they make for an easy exit into the Hoboken station.
Passengers in the second carriage broke the emergency windows to get out.
“I saw a woman pinned under concrete,” Mr Shah told a local New York TV station. “A lot of people were bleeding; one guy was crying.”
Brian Klein, whose train arrived at the station after the crash, told the Wall Street Journal that transit police ushered everyone aboard his train into a waiting room, “then quickly started yelling, ‘Just get out! We don’t know if the building is going to hold.’”
The train had left Spring Valley, New York, at 7:23am and crashed at 8:45am, said NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder.
More than 100,000 people use NJ Transit trains to commute from New Jersey into New York City daily.
A crash at the same station on a different train line injured more than 30 people in 2011. The PATH commuter train crashed into bumpers at the end of the tracks on a Sunday morning.