Source: Railroad had problems

N.J. Transit cited for dozens of violations, U.S. rail official says.

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Federal r a i l o f f i c i a l s f o u n d d oz - ens of violations during an audit focusing on New Jersey Transit’s safety and operations months before a commuter train crashed, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 others, a U.S. official said Saturday.

The official, who was familiar with an audit by the Federal Railroad Administration, spoke on condition of ano- nymity because the official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation.

The railroad administration began the audit in June after noticing an uptick in rail incidents and found “dozens of safety violations” that needed to be fixed immediately, the official said. The commuter rail agency was fined as a result of the audit, the official said, adding that federal agencies are continuing to work with the railroad to ensure compliance with federal rail safety guidelines.

New Jersey Transit trains have been involved in more t h a n 1 5 0 a c c i d e n t s t h a t caused more than $4.8 mil- lion in damage to tracks or equipment since Jan. 1, 2011, according to federal data. There were 25 such accidents in 2015 and 10 in the first seven months of 2016, but none caused injuries or death. Most of the incidents occurred at low speeds and more than half were in train yards.

On Thursday, a New Jersey Transit commuter train smashed through a steel-andconcrete bumper and hurtled into the station’s waiting area, killing a woman on the platform and injuring more than 100 other people.

T h e t r a i n ’s e n g i n e e r, Thomas Gallagher, who was among those injured in the crash, has been interviewed by the National Transportation Safety Board, officials said Friday, but the agency provided no further details about the interview in a news release Saturday.

The NTSB also retrieved an event recorder from the locomotive at the rear of the train, and investigators are working to download speed and braking information it contains.

I n v e s t i g a t o r s h a v e n ’ t been able to extract a second recorder from the forward-facing video camera in the train’s mangled first car because it is under a collapsed section of the train station’s roof.