UPDATE: Person killed in Hoboken train crash identified
An NJ Transit train crashed at Hoboken Terminal on Thursday morning. Early reports indicate at least one person was killed and up to 100 were injured in the crash.
Refresh this page for the latest updates from the Asbury Park Press. If you witnessed the crash, email Mike Davis at mdavis@gannettnj.com or call him at (732) 643-4223.
5:14 p.m. The State Medical Examiner's Office identified the woman killed in the train derailment as 34-year-old Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, a Hoboken resident.
2:18 p.m Cuomo declined to speculate on whether positive train control could have prevented the derailment.
"The positive train control system can be a benefit depending on the circumstances, but ... we don't know what the circumstances were that caused the train to continue at that rate of speed," Cuomo said. "It could be any number of things. It could be personal to the [engineer]. It could be equipment failure. It could be anything.
"Before we start to prescribe what could be a solution, you really have to define the problem. You won't have the problem defined until after the investigation," he said.
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2:09 p.m. "There's no real point to speculating what happened -- why did the train come in so fast, was there a medical condition, what happened with the conductor, etc.," Cuomo said. "We have no idea and I don't think the speculation is especially helpful. If there's a lesson to be learned, we will learn it. Until you investigate the problem, you don't know the solution. Let's find out the facts first."
2:06 p.m. Christie confirmed that the one fatality was a woman "struck by debris" while standing on the platform.
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2:03 p.m. NJ Department of Transportation commissioner and NJ Transit chairman Rick Hammer said full capacity rush hour PATH service will be in operation for the evening commute. NJ Transit is expanding additional bus and rail service to make up for the loss of Hoboken.
A bus shuttle will run between Hoboken and Secaucus Junction on a "load and go" basis, leaving when buses are full and not on any time schedule.
All other rail service will operate regularly, but riders should expect congestion and delays.
2:02 p.m. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and NJ Transit are working with transportation officials to make the evening commute as easy as possible, given the indefinite closure of the Hoboken Terminal.
2:02 p.m. There is no timetable as to when the NJ Transit portion of the terminal will be open, Christie said. NJ Transit and Port Authority police cut power to the station after the derailment, due to hanging wires.
1:59 p.m. "We're not going to speculate to the cause of the accident. We're in the midst of an investigation," Christie said.
1:57 p.m. Gov. Chris Christie confirmed that there was only one fatality, along with 108 injuries. The train's engineer was "critically injured" and is coordinating with law enforcement officials, he said.
1:23 p.m. The person killed in the crash was a woman standing on the platform, CNN reports.
1:01 p.m. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will hold a joint press conference at 2 p.m.
12:49 p.m. At a press conference in Washington, NTSB vice chairwoman T. Bella Dinh-Zarr said investigators would "absolutely" look at whether positive train control could have prevented the crash.
"PTC can prevent accidents. As to whether it is involved in this accident, that is definitely one of the things we will look at carefully," Dinh-Zarr said.
In 2011, a PATH train collided with a bumper put in place at the rail line's terminus, injuring 34 passengers and bystanders.
12:31 p.m. Appearing on Fox 5 New York, Gov. Chris Christie said the train engineer was "critically injured.
"We have no indication at this point that this is anything other than a tragic accident," he said. The train enter the station at a much higher rate of speed than normal, he said.
The terminal won't reopen until its structural integrity is investigated and determined.
12:21 p.m.: The National Transportation Safety Board has scheduled a press conference at 12:45 p.m. Hoboken and NJ Transit officials have scheduled a press conference for 1 p.m.
11:55 a.m. While the cause of the crash is still not known, it may have been prevented by "positive train control," or "PTC" technology.
The technology provides automatic braking for trains traveling too fast along curves or slower routes, or in the event of an incapacitated conductor.
A Federal Railroad Administration scorecard last month showed zeroes for NJ Transit in seven PTC categories, despite the agency stating it had purchased more than half of the equipment needed for on-board locomotives, as well as 600 radios. NJ Transit's fiscal year 2017 budget included $1 million to secure radio frequency space for the technology.
In May, NJ Transit said it had two prototype vehicles -- a locomotive and a train car -- to test PTC on eight miles attack along the Morristown line. Crews began installing fiber optic cable along the Bergen and North Jersey Coast lines.
But left to do would be to equip 440 locomotives with receivers, install 124 radio towers and train 1,100 employees, according to NJ Transit’s annual report to the Federal Railroad Administration. The total price tag is expected to be $250 million to $275 million.
The Federal Railroad Administration initially mandated all railroads install the technology by Dec. 31, 2015 but railroads lobbied for an extension until 2018. Some, including NJ Transit, threatened a shutdown without an extension.
Other commuter railroads in the region, such as Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road, are even further behind.
11:43 a.m. Rick Ciappa, a safety inspector for NJ Transit, was working in the station when the train crashed and rushed to help a woman on the ground near the scene.
“I think most people who got hurt weren’t on the train. They were going by, having their coffee, going to the PATH, going to the ferry," said Ciappa, whose job is to make sure brakes work for every outbound train. "Five minutes later, I would have been there [in the path of the train].”
“The train had to brake 438 times before this. I don’t think it was brake failure. Maybe the conductor had a heart attack," he said.
The crash caused “heavy structural damage” to the terminal, NJ Transit spokeswoman Jennifer Nelson said. About 250 people were on board Videos and photos from the scene show steel beams that support the roof collapsed onto the train and platform.
“Obviously this is an ongoing investigation,” Nelson said. “We are looking at all the things that could have caused this accident.”
Eyewitnesses said the train appeared to ram the station at a high rate of speed, while Railway Age Magazine editor Bill Vantuono told NBC News that trains normally enter the station at about five miles per hour.
“This is speculation, but it looked like something happened to the engineer coming in,” Vantuono said.
11:29 a.m.: Jersey City Medical Center CEO Joseph Scott said 11 patients were being treated in the emergency room, including three treated by trauma surgeons. The patients' injuries were listed as critical or stable, not life threatening. Another 40 patients were treated with "walk-in" injuries.
11:03 a.m. Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, D-Hudson, said a transit official confirmed one death in the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is opening an investigation into the crash and sending investigators to the scene.
11:01 a.m. NJ Transit buses, private buses and ferry services are cross-honoring NJ Transit rail fares. Service into and out of Hoboken -- on both NJ Transit and PATH -- is still suspended.
Uber is refunding rides from the Hoboken Terminal until 12 p.m. Lyft is refunding rides from the terminal until 1 p.m.
10:48 a.m.: Passengers realized they were coming into the station and the train wasn’t slowing down, said Jamie Weatherhead-Saul, a Wood-Ridge resident who was on the train this morning.
“It didn’t stop. It didn’t slow down,” she said. “The train just kept going.”
When it crashed, she heard people screaming from the first car.
She was between the first and second cars and was not injured, but shaken up.
“We felt the impact but nothing like any of those other people [in the first car],” she said.
She was able to get out of the train after a conductor lifted an emergency latch.
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10:40 a.m.: NJ Transit released an official statement on the crash:
"At approximately 8:45 a.m. train #1614, a Pascack Valley line departure from Spring Valley operating to Hoboken, struck the Hoboken Terminal building on track 5. Initial reports indicate multiple critical injuries. Rail service in/out of Hoboken is suspended due to the incident. HBLR and PATH are also suspended into and out of Hoboken Terminal. NJ TRANSIT bus, private carriers and ferry services are cross-honoring NJT rail tickets and passes."
10:34 a.m.: The train that derailed inside Hoboken Terminal at about 8:50 a.m. Thursday crashed with such force it “sounded like an explosion,” according to an eyewitness, who said the train “was going relatively fast” when it hit.
“By the time I turned around and registered the train was coming, it had already completely crossed to the pedestrian walkway,” said Chris Mann, 34, originally from Bergenfield, who was less than 100 feet away from the train when it derailed. “It all seemed to be very fast.”
Mann ran downstairs into the underground PATH station to escape the oncoming train. After the train stopped, he went back upstairs to find passengers climbing out of the train’s windows to get to safety.
The scene was confusing, as many commuters continued walking to trains unaware that an accident had just taken place.
“People were crying and one woman … was bleeding but a lot of people were still filing in unaware,” Mann said. “The first responders were here very fast.”
An hour after the crash some passengers were still trapped inside the train, and observers worried whether the station’s damaged roof might collapse on top of them, Steve Capus, a producer for CBS News who lives close to the station, told CBS News from the scene.
As injured passengers continued to leave the train, others gathered in a parking lot near the station and waited for medical attention, according to video from the scene posted the CBS News website.
“Rescue crews are in the middle of removing victims,” Capus said. “Crews are still bringing people out.
Josh Crandall runs Clever Commute, a website and app for commuters. He began receiving messages about the crash almost as soon as it happened, he said.
“What I know is it’s a scary mess,” Crandall said. “People are checking in with family and friends and making sure everyone is ok.”
10:20 a.m.: A New Jersey Transit spokeswoman says that more than 100 people were injured, some critically, when a commuter train plowed into the Hoboken station.
The train from New York crashed during the Thursday morning rush hour. It caused serious damage to both the train and station. Witnesses reported injuries, including one woman who was trapped under concrete and many people bleeding.
The spokeswoman, Jennifer Nelson, says she doesn’t know yet how fast the train was going when it ran into the rail bumper at the end of the line.
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10:05 a.m.:NBC4 New York is reporting three confirmed death, up to 100 injured.
10 a.m.: A New Jersey Transit spokeswoman says that a commuter train that crashed into a train station in Hoboken was coming from Spring Valley, New York, on the Pascack Valley Line.
Nancy Snyder says there were multiple injuries, but it’s not clear how many, after Train No. 1614 crashed into the Hoboken train station around 8:45 a.m. She says the train left Spring Valley at 7:23 a.m. Thursday.
TV footage and photos from the scene Thursday morning show damage to the rail car and extensive structural damage to the Hoboken station.
A spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration says that investigators have been dispatched to the scene.
Passengers heading to New York City transfer from New Jersey Transit trains at Hoboken to board other trains and ferries to get into Manhattan.
9:55 a.m.: A passenger says the commuter train that crashed in New Jersey was crowded and plowed through the platform at the end of the line.
Bhagyesh Shah told NBC New York he saw a lot of people bleeding and a woman pinned under concrete Thursday morning at New Jersey Transit’s Hoboken station.
Shah says he was in the back of the train but that many people use the front cars, since it makes for an easier exit. He says the train plowed into the platform. He says it lasted only a couple seconds, “but it felt like an eternity.”
He tells the TV station that passengers in the second car broke the emergency windows to get out.
Images from the scene show damage to the rail car and extensive structural damage, but there’s no official word on the number of injuries.
9:30 a.m.:A commuter train has crashed into a rail station in New Jersey during the morning rush hour, causing serious damage.
TV footage and photos from the scene Thursday morning show damage to the rail car and extensive structural damage to the Hoboken station.
Radio station WFAN anchor John Minko told New York radio station WINS that the train “went right through the barriers and into the reception area.”
Rail service was suspended in and out of Hoboken, which is 7 miles outside New York City.
There is no word so far on any injuries.
Emergency crews are arriving on the scene.
9:10 a.m.: A commuter train has crashed into a rail station in New Jersey.
Emergency crews are arriving on the scene in Hoboken on Thursday morning.
Photos from the scene show a damaged New Jersey Transit rail car inside the station, surrounded by debris.
There is no word on the damage or any possible injuries.
Hoboken is across the river from New York City.