NJ Transit a mess, fed probers found
New Jersey Transit, the operator of the speeding commuter train that crashed into Hoboken Terminal on Thursday, underwent a federal audit in June to assess its safety protocols — and it uncovered dozens of violations, according to reports.
Since 2011, the railroad has been fined more than $500,000 by the Federal Railroad Administration for offenses ranging from drug and alcohol use by its employes to violations of its own operating rules, the Associated Press said.
Those violations included incidents of trains overrunning switches and red lights, the Wall Street Journal said, quoting unidentified sources.
It said the federal agency had spent weeks inspecting NJ Transit facilities and is currently drafting a report that could call for future federal monitoring.
The feds typically conduct audits when inspectors detect a surge in potential violations, the Journal said, quoting an unidentified source.
Thursday’s crash killed one person and injured dozens of others in the terminal and on the train.
The train, which began its run in Spring Valley in upstate, sped into the terminal and crashed into a bumper at the end of the tracks.
It kept going, and may have caused serious structural damage to the historic building.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board said they’ve conducted three inter- views with the train’s Thomas Gallagher, 48.
They would not reveal what the 29-year NJ Transit veteran told them.
A woman who identified herself as Gallagher’s mother said Saturday that he was doing well.
“He’s OK, he’s good,’’ she said outside of his home in Morris Plains, NJ.
Falling debris from the terminal killed a young mother, Hoboken resident Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, who had been waiting on a platform.
Her body will to be returned to her native Brazil on Sunday.
A data recorder and camera on the front of the train that could be crucial to the probe are still stuck in the mangled wreckage of the front car.
A data recorder at the rear of the train is in the hands of investigators. operator,