Hoboken train crash aftermath
National Transportation Safety Board holds off questioning man about fatal crash, but others have interviewed him
Transit workers lay down pallets and boards for commuters to walk on Friday in a flooded hallway adjacent to the site of a train crash at the Hoboken Terminal. Investigators, meanwhile, continue their probe into causes of the crash.
Hoboken, N.J. — National Transportation Safety Board investigators held off questioning the engineer in the deadly Hoboken train crash because of his injuries Friday and struggled to lift clues from the train’s black box recorders.
Authorities want to know why the NJ Transit commuter train with engineer Thomas Gallagher at the controls smashed through a steel-and-concrete bumper and hurtled into the station’s waiting area Thursday morning. A woman on the platform was killed, and more than 100 others were injured.
NTSB Vice Chairwoman T. Bella Dinh-Zarr said the board, the lead agency in the investigation, has been “in touch” with Gallagher, but “unfortunately, as you may know, he was injured, so we’re scheduling the interview with him.”
She said blood and urine were taken from him and sent for testing, standard procedure in train accidents.
However, a government official said that investigators from one of the other agencies taking part in the probe interviewed Gallagher three times Friday. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity, would not disclose what Gallagher said but described him as cooperative.
Meanwhile, the NTSB retrieved the event recorder that was in the locomotive at the rear of the train but hasn’t been able to download its data and has gone to the manufacturer for help, Dinh-Zarr said. The event recorder contains speed and braking information.
The NTSB also hasn’t been able to extract a recorder from the forward-facing video camera in the train’s mangled first car, Dinh-Zarr said. She said the wreckage cannot be safely entered yet because it is under a collapsed section of the station’s roof.
Investigators also were reviewing security video from the station, setting out to inspect the nearby tracks, and gathering records on the crew members’ training, scheduling and health, Dinh-Zarr said.
The engineer, conductor and brakeman “have been very cooperative,” she said.
Gallagher, 48, a NJ Transit engineer for about 18 years, was pulled from the wreckage, treated at a hospital and released. Authorities have given no details on his injuries.
Gallagher’s union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said it could not comment because it is taking part in the investigation. The other parties to the investigation are the Federal Railroad Administration, NJ Transit and two other railroad unions.
Witnesses said they did not hear or feel the brakes being applied before the crash.
Authorities would not estimate how fast the train was going before it hit the bumper at the end of its track. But the speed limit into the station is 10 mph.