Extracting data from recorders may take days
Feds said it may be days before they release the data from a recorder on board a commuter train that crashed last week.
Federal investigators are working to extract data from an event recorder on board a New Jersey commuter train that crashed last week, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 others, but say it may be a few days before they release the information.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators recovered the data recorder, a video recorder and the train engineer’s cellphone from the front car of the NJ Transit train on Tuesday afternoon. The equipment was sent to an agency lab in Washington for analysis, officials said.
“We are extracting the data and will be providing a characterization of the data within the next few days,” NTSB spokesman Chris O’Neil said Wednesday.
At a news briefing on Tuesday afternoon, NTSB Investigator James Southworth said he didn’t yet know whether the recorders had any useful data. A second event recorder that was retrieved from the locomotive in the rear of the train wasn’t functioning on the day of the crash, officials have said.
The recorder that was retrieved on Tuesday appeared to be in “fairly good shape,” Southworth said.
“We expect the recorders will be able to provide the investigators with speed information, throttle positions, braking system information, and about 100 other parameters, as well as a video image of the accident,” Southworth added.