CRUEL FATE
Carnage after fatal crash into n.J. station
Train crashes through Hoboken station Mom of one killed waiting on platform Over 100 injured in morning mayhem
INVESTIGATORS WANT an NJ Transit engineer to explain what went wrong in the moments before his runaway train killed a bystander on a platform and injured 108 people in a nightmarish crash into the Hoboken station.
Engineer Thomas Gallagher, rescued from his crumpled cab Thursday morning, spoke to authorities within hours of the rush-hour carnage caused when his four-car train hurtled off the tracks, said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
But there was no public explanation for why the train exceeded the 10 mph speed limit while approaching the busy Hoboken Terminal on Track 5 — and Gallagher, 48, was released from a Jersey hospital hours later.
“The train came in at a high rate of speed, and the question is ‘Why is that?’ ” said Christie. “We won’t know that for some time.”
Federal investigators arrived hours later in Hoboken as the probe continued, with no one providing an answer to the governor’s questions. A cop blocked reporters Thursday night from knocking on the door of Gallagher’s home in Morris Plains, N.J.
Most of the injured were rush-hour commuters aboard the 7:23 a.m. train from Spring Valley, Rockland County, as Train No. 1614 arrived for the last stop on its daily 75-minute trip along the Pascack Valley line.
The doomed woman was standing on a nearby train platform when she was struck and killed by a flying piece of debris. One witness said the train, with four 54-ton passenger cars, actually went airborne.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” said NJ Transit employee Michael Larson.
Authorities said the train was traveling too fast as it arrived eight minutes late — and never decelerated until crashing through a concrete and steel bumper, sending passengers and debris flying.
“It sounded like a bomb went off,” said construction worker Charles Frazier of Roselle Park, N.J., describing the chaotic 8:45 a.m. scene. “The roof collapsed. The steel beams came down ... People were trying to climb out the (train) windows.”
A portion of the historic 109-year-old station was reduced to rubble, with a collapsed roof falling amid mangled steel and smashed glass.
Bleeding commuters wandered in a daze as first responders flooded the station, and 75 people were hospitalized with broken bones, oozing cuts, bumps and bruises.
A pregnant woman was lifted to safety by fellow passengers through a window in the train’s front car.
“People were running, obviously screaming,” said witness Tony Spina. “I saw folks bleeding from their heads. I saw folks limping. Folks were on the ground who couldn’t move.”
An NJ Transit spokesman estimated there were about 250 people aboard the morning train that was propelled by a locomotive in the rear.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to Hoboken within hours. Their mission includes recovering data recorders from two locations on the train, each with an outward-facing camera.
It was unclear how long the terminal will remain closed, but metropolitan area commuters will face delays until the transit hub reopens.
NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr said a second part of the probe would focus on whether Positive Track Control technology might have prevented the fatal crash.
The speed limit while entering the station is 10 mph, she said. PTC technology automatically slows or stops trains exceeding the limit.
“PTC has been one of our priorities,” she said. “We know that it can prevent accidents. Whether it is involved in this accident, that is definitely one of the things we will look at carefully.”
Federal investigators also intend to speak with Gallagher about the final, fateful part of the daily trip.
Gallagher, who, according to state records, made $110,996 last year, including $39,210.96 in over-