New Jersey train rams into station, kills bystander, injures 108 others

(Agencies) Updated: 2016-09-30 08:47

"Our investigation will continue here on scene for seven to 10 days," Dinh-Zarr said.

The New Jersey medical examiner's office identified the victim as Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, of Hoboken. The woman was a former employee in the Brazilian legal department of SAP, the technology company said in a statement. Her LinkedIn page said she was a corporate lawyer who attended Florida International University.

Christie said 108 people were injured. The train was on track five when it hit the Hoboken terminal building at about 08:45 a.m. EDT (1245 GMT). The Chinese Consulate General in New York told Xinhua news service at least one of the victims was a Chinese citizen.

Cuomo said it was obvious the train came into the station too fast, but it was unclear why. The cause could be human error or technical failure, Cuomo said. He added that it was too early to say whether an anti-collision system known as positive train control (PTC) could have prevented the crash. PTC is designed to halt a train if the driver misses a stop signal and advocates cite it for helping to combat human error.

The crash renews focus on the mandatory anti-collision system that has been plagued with lengthy, contentious delays. According to a report by NJ Transit to the Federal Railroad Administration for the first half of 2016, the public transport system does not have PTC in operation on its 326-mile network.

New Jersey Transit ranked second for the most train accident reports nationwide for commuter railroads from January 2007 through June 2016, behind Amtrak.

New Jersey Transit had 271 accidents, or 18 percent of the total, compared to Amtrak's 44 percent, according to data from the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis.

Mike Larson, who works as a machinist for NJ Transit, was 30 feet away from the train just before it slammed into the platform. He told The Journal News of Westchester County, New York, that the train's speed appeared to be about 30 mph.

The speed limit in the station is 10 miles (16 km) per hour, the NTSB's Dinh-Zarr told reporters.

The terminal, listed on the New Jersey Registry of Historic Places, was designed in the Beaux Arts style and construction finished in 1907. It lies on the Hudson River's west bank across from New York City. Its station is used by many commuters traveling into Manhattan from New Jersey and New York state.

Hoboken is the last stop on the lines it serves.

A couple of hundred emergency workers spent the morning shuttling in and out of the station, some carrying the injured on stretchers to ambulances outside. Federal investigators later began examining the wreckage.

Linda Albelli, a 62-year-old from Closter, New Jersey, was sitting in one of the train's rear cars and described how she had felt something was wrong a moment before the impact.

"I thought to myself, 'Oh my God, he's not slowing up, and this is where we usually stop,'" Albelli said. "'We're going too fast,' and with that there was this tremendous crash."