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A crowded rush-hour commuter train crashed through a barrier at the busy Hoboken station and lurched across the waiting area Thursday morning, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others in a tangle of broken concrete, twisted metal and dangling cables, authorities said.
People pulled concrete off bleeding victims and passengers kicked out windows and crawled out amid crying and screaming after the arriving New Jersey Transit train ran off the end of its track. It apparently knocked out pillars as it ground to a halt in a covered waiting area, collapsing a section of the roof onto the first car.
Ross Bauer, an IT specialist who was heading to his Manhattan job from his home in Hackensack, was sitting in the third or fourth car when the train was pulling into the historic 109-year-old station for its final stop.
“All of a sudden, there was an abrupt stop and a big jolt that threw people out of their seats. The lights went out, and we heard a loud crashing noise — like an explosion — that turned out to be the roof of the terminal,” he said. “I heard panicked screams, and everyone was stunned.”
Gov. Chris Christie said a woman who was standing on the platform was killed by debris. Of the 108 others injured, 74 of them were hospitalized, according to Christie and area hospitals.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators to the scene. They will want to know what the operator was doing before the crash and whether the person was distracted, said Bob Chipkevich, who formerly headed the NTSB train crash investigations section.
William Blaine, an engineer for a company that runs freight trains, was inside the station when the train crashed and ran over to help. He walked over to the heavily damaged first car with a transit employee to check on the train’s engineer and said he found him slumped over the controls. Christie said the engineer was in critical condition but cooperating with investigators.
The Hoboken Terminal, which handles more than 50,000 train and bus riders daily, is just across the Hudson River from New York City. It is the final stop for several train lines and a transfer point for many commuters on their way to New York City. Many passengers get off at Hoboken and take ferries or a PATH commuter train to New York.
None of NJ Transit’s trains are fully equipped with positive train control, a safety system designed to prevent accidents by automatically slowing or stopping trains that are going too fast. The industry is under government orders to install PTC, but the deadline has been repeatedly extended by regulators at the request of the railroads. The deadline is now the end of 2018.
Jennifer Nelson, a spokeswoman for NJ Transit, said she didn’t know how fast the train was going when it crashed through the concrete-and-steel bumper at the end of the line. Rail service was suspended in and out of Hoboken.
The train didn’t slow down as it entered the station, said Jamie Weatherhead-Saul, who was standing at a door between the first and second cars. The impact hurled passengers against her and caught one woman’s leg between the doors before fellow riders managed to pull her up, Weatherhead-Saul said.
Passenger Bhagyesh Shah said the train was crowded, particularly the first two cars, because they make for an easy exit into the Hoboken station. Passengers in the second car broke the emergency windows to get out.
“I saw a woman pinned under concrete,” Shah told WNBC-TV in New York. “A lot of people were bleeding; one guy was crying.”
Brian Klein, whose train arrived at the station after the crash, told The Wall Street Journal that transit police ushered everyone aboard his train into a waiting room, “then quickly started yelling, ‘Just get out! We don’t know if the building is going to hold.'”
The train had left Spring Valley, New York, at 7:23 a.m. and crashed at 8:45 a.m., said NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder.
More than 100,000 people use NJ Transit trains to commute from New Jersey into New York City daily.
A crash at the same station on a different train line injured more than 30 people in 2011. The PATH commuter train crashed into bumpers at the end of the tracks on a Sunday morning.
The Hoboken Terminal, which was built in 1907 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has undergone waves of restoration, including a major project launched by NJ Transit in April 2004 that largely restored the building to its original condition. The station was extensively damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and underwent major repairs.
(AP)
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15 Responses
I don’t understand!
The train rides on tracks!
How did it “slam” into the station?
terror?
This is the last stop and the tracks end at the station.
The bamboozling has begun. So far nobody’s talked about the driver or who else was operating. Who is he, what’s his record, who else, if not him, was operating the train at RUSH HOUR. Here it comes- The Big Spin.
1.
Please allow me to explain to you.
The train arrives into Hoboken Terminal, which is the last stop. At the end of the line, right before the platform where people scurry on and off their trains, there is a bumper that is supposed to stop the train from hitting the concrete platform just behind the bumper.
In this case the report is that the train did not stop, although it couldn’t’ve been going super fast because of all the turns and twists on the way into Hoboken Terminal, but it could have been going fast enough to cause the damage. Generally the trains pull into this terminus at about 5mph.
Thanks Mark Levin, #5. To end the line right at the station snd have the bumpers right thete at the station, I would submit that this is an architectural flaw. There ought be several hundred feet between the passenger stop and the track end primarily for this reason! But thanks again for answering my query.
Cthey report that this train was going full force.
Train was not going at “full force” it would have derailed long before it reached the buffers. Ever ride into Hoboken terminal on an NJ Transit train? With all the switching and turning that a train goes through as it pulls into the terminal it is not going anywhere “full force”. Trains that close to the terminal are normally traveling at less than 5mph. If it was going 15 or 20mph it was already traveling much faster than it should have been. “Full force” that train would have been going 50 or 60mph and probably would have plowed its way well into the terminal building.
zionsgate: The driver is in the hospital and is cooperating with investigators. Gov. Christie has stated that the train was travelling beyond the speed it was supposed to but they do yet know why. Did you really expect answers within 4 hours of the crash?
Something doesn’t add up!! I used to work right across from the terminal and used to commute from Suffern (which is from same area). The trains usually slow down to a very slow pace during the last half mile before the terminal–So how is it that this train went at full force into the station–if the cause was Not mechanical failure or severe distraction of driver?????
SMFG3: you are correct….that is why the NTSB is investigating. Gov. Christie stated repeatedly during his press conference that he will not speculate and stated outright that the train was going to fast.
The train didn’t slow down as it entered the station This reminds me of the tragic “Moorgate Tube Crash” on February 28, 1975, when the train also did not slow down as it crashed into a dead end tunnel.
Just trust what commuters are saying about full force, I ride the Hoboken line everyday. I’m not some engineer dude but, FIRSTLY even if the train was going 10-20 mph and didn’t stop that is enough full force… this is a real train on a real track. It’s not a model train that can stop when you tell it to stop… It glides and slides smoothly. Maybe it was going faster but I don’t know and it doesn’t matter.
SECONDLY, the turns and switches… yeh that’s true however Mr.Passaic/Clifton/Suffern person, B’chavod dear neighbor, allow me to ask you a Shaila..have you ever noticed that when you are coming from Passaic you’re the one who is doing this whole dance to get into the terminal. (they probably studied Jewish wedding dancing and they figure we can handle it alright)… while on your left side there is a train that turns in from somewhere almost looks like it will cut in front of you.. well that train is not dancing into the station.. that train is coming into the station like a sled in the snow in Central Park or Aycrigg Ave/Edgewood Ave (Big Hill blocks)and its moving…so if the driver falls asleep or is TEXTING or is DUI, and he doesn’t slow it down he will end up where that train ended up today.
Meanwhile I’m hanging out late at the office writing these comments to avoid the big lines at Penn Station because now we have one less station.
GadolHatorah commented when the plane was canceled it was min Hashameyim and the ppl shouldn’t go to uman. I’m assuming according to his translation no one should ride trains anymore…..