Post by Admin on Sept 29, 2016 14:24:49 GMT -4
A commuter train plowed into a platform inside New Jersey Transit's Hoboken terminal Thursday morning, killing at least one person and injuring 108, officials said.
Witnesses reported seeing bruised and bloodied passengers, including one woman pinned underneath concrete, after the crash occurred just before 9 a.m. ET.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said at least one person was killed and all victims from inside the station, teeming at rush-hour, were removed in the morning. Initial reports provided to NBC News placed the number of fatalities at three.
First responders treat injured passengers after a train crash on Thursday morning in Hoboken, NJ.
PATH train workers gather outside the station after a train crash on Thursday morning in Hoboken, NJ
Scene of a train crash on Thursday morning in Hoboken, NJ.
"There's no evidence at this time ... that it was anything other than an accident," Christie said on MSNBC.
During a news conference, he declined to speculate on the exact cause but said the engineer was at the hospital and cooperating with investigators.
A triage area was set up outside the station to help the injured. Jersey City Medical Center said it was treating over 50 patients, including three who were in serious condition with orthopedic injuries and deep cuts, Chief Medical Officer Kenneth Garay said at a news conference. Most of those wounded had minor injuries and were released, he added.
Hoboken University Medical Center said it treated 22 patients, with some suffering deep cuts and a fracture.
The Hoboken terminal, located across the river from Lower Manhattan, is one of the busiest in the greater New York City area, with an estimated 50,000 commuters passing through daily. The trains do not have seat belts.
Photos taken from the scene and posted on social media showed major damage to the more than century-old station, with part of its metal roof collapsed and mangled steel and shattered glass on the ground. Water gushed from busted pipes. A waiting area and ticketing booth were demolished.
The train originated from Spring Valley, New York, on the Pascack Valley line and was expected to arrive in Hoboken at 8:38 a.m. The accident occurred at 8:45 a.m. on Track Five, a NJ Transit spokeswoman said.
A passenger, Bhagyesh Shah, said he was standing in the back of the second train car when it smashed through the platform and hit a couple of pillars, which caused the ceiling to rain down.
"It was for a couple seconds, but it felt like an eternity," Shah said. "I saw a woman pinned under the concrete. A lot of people were bleeding, one guy was crying."
Shah said the passengers in the second car broke the emergency windows to get out.
He added that the train, which had come from the Secaucus Junction station, was crowded — especially in the first and second cars because they give the easiest access to the terminal.
Another commuter, Steve Mesiano, told MSNBC that the crash sounded like a "huge, huge bang, and the lights went off." He was in the second train car, and said he saw the roof of the first car collapse.
When he got out, Mesiano saw bloodied passengers everywhere.
"There was blood on the floor," he said.
Nancy Bido, who was sitting in the middle of the train, told NBC New York that it felt like they were "going really too fast." She hit her head on the person in front of her as the train lurched forward.
"Everybody was pretty shaken up and upset," said Bido, adding that she was waiting to be taken to one of three hospitals in the area treating people.
Jamie Weatherhead-Saul, who was riding in the first car, said "the train just felt like it never stopped."
"It didn't slow down, it didn't, it didn't brake," she said, shaking. "The lights shut off and people started yelling."jon
NJ Transit, PATH and Hudson-Bergen Light rail service in Hoboken was immediately suspended, and the National Safety Transportation Board told NBC News it was sending a team to investigate.
Kitty Higgins, a former NTSB board member, said the review will focus on what caused the train to pull into the station without slowing down.
"Why that happened, we obviously have to find out. Was there something that happened to the driver, was there an equipment failure we don't know [about] yet? That's what will be looked at," she told MSNBC.
The comprehensive probe will look at all factors, including the condition of the train tracks and the recent sleep patterns of the engineer, according to another former NTSB board member, John Goglia. Investigators will examine data from the event recorder, the train's black box.
"The event recorder's going to tell us what the engineer was doing as he approached that station. We will be able to tell if he, in fact, slowed down, if he applied brakes, and how much he applied," Goglia said.
While the investigation is in its preliminary stages, there was no initial sign of terrorism or that it was a deliberate act, two local law enforcement officials said.
The Hoboken station — a historic facility and NJ Transit's fifth-busiest — was the site of another crash on a different train line that left more than 30 hurt in 2011.
An earlier version of this report said at least three people were killed, according to information provided by the Regional Medical Examiner's Office in Newark and a Jersey City Medical Center spokesman. The number is at least one, according to Gov. Christie's office.
