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One dead and over 100 injured in New Jersey train crash – as it happened

This article is more than 7 years old
  • Governor Chris Christie says one person has died in the train crash
  • New Jersey Transit train crashed into Hoboken station at 8.45am
  • More than 100 people injured, some of them critically
 Updated 
in New York
Thu 29 Sep 2016 14.48 EDTFirst published on Thu 29 Sep 2016 10.41 EDT

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Officials still don’t know the cause of a commuter train crash in New Jersey‘s Hoboken rail station, which left at least one person dead and 108 people injured. Local and federal investigators are on the scene, working to determine the cause of the morning rush hour crash.

We’re closing the live blog for now, but will be back with any major updates. Here’s what we currently know about today’s accident:

  • The one person killed in the accident was on the platform and hit by falling debris, said New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Most of those injured were inside the train.
  • Witnesses said the train, heading from upstate New York to Hoboken, “plowed” into the station at a high speed. Part of the station’s roof collapsed in the devastating accident.
  • Though the cause of the accident is unknown, officials said that the train was definitely traveling at a high-speed into the station. It then overran the tracks until it was stopped by crashing into a wall.
  • Parts of the terminal remain closed, though a portion of it used for the PATH commuter train service has been re-opened after engineers determined that section was structurally safe.
  • Federal investigators said, as part of their investigation, they would look at a crash at the same station in 2011, when a Path commuter train hit the bumpers at the end of the tracks, injuring more than 30 people.
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Christie updated the injury count to 108 people. He said right now, there is still only one fatality.

He and Cuomo went on to emphasize that the pair has worked together many times to respond to natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other crises.

Both men have been governors since 2010, working closely as the heads of the neighboring states.

Christie said he could not remember a time in the history of either state, when two governors together had been “more tested” by crises. He said the first call he received this morning, after speaking with his staff about the accident, was from Cuomo, who cancelled a trip to Israel to respond to the crisis.

Christie also spoke of the region’s resiliency. Christie said: “This region has developed a resilience that is admired by the rest of the world because of how we’ve been tested”.

The person killed in the accident was standing on the platform and hit by debris, said Christie. He did not provide more details on the victim.

Christie said the “most important thing” is to address is the structural safety of the building.

He reiterated that they don’t know why the train crashed, all they know is that it came in “at much too high of speed,” he said.

“We have no indication that this is anything other than a tragic accident,” Christie said, adding that it is still the early stage of the investigation.

“We know what happened, we don’t know why it happened,” said New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

“The silver-lining is there has only been one fatality so far,” he said, noting that the devastation from the crash suggested there could have been more fatalities.

Cuomo said: “These are difficult times over these past weeks and months, between terrorist attacks, natural disasters, we have had our hands full in this country, we have had our hands full in the north-east”.

But, he added, all these things have been dealt with because people are working together.

Governor: cause of accident unknown

New Jersey governor Chris Christie is up first.

“We’re not going to speculate on the cause of the accident,” Christie said.

He said he and Cuomo have been in constant communication through the day. Christie has also spoken with the White House about the accident.

“We pray for the victims and their families,” Christie said.

He said that structural engineers were inspecting the integrity of the building. A portion of the building used for PATH commuter trains has been deemed safe.

It is too soon to know when the terminal will re-open, Christie said.

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Jessica Glenza
Jessica Glenza

More details on the crash from freight train conductor, William Blaine, who said he felt “death was following” him after he saw the train crash.

Blaine said he was just outside of view of the train in a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts when he heard a “kaboom” and “the whole place shook”. He ran to the track, he said, to try and help.

Blaine said the train came into Hoboken station fast – around 30mph. Typically, he said, a train would slow down as it pulled into the station at 30, then 20, 15, and then one or two miles per hour until it hits a bumper at the end of the platform.

Train engineer and witness William Blaine describes the scene at New Jersey Transit’s rail station. Photograph: Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) vice chairman, Bella Dinh-Zarr, provided a very brief update on the crash from Washington DC. The federal agency is charged with investigating the cause of the crash.

Dinh-Zarr said that the agency will be assessing the role that a technology designed to slow speeding trains could have played in the system. It is called Positive Train Control (PTC) and is due to be installed in all US railroads by the end of 2018.

It had not yet been installed for this train.

“PTC has been one of our priorities, we know that it can definitely prevent accidents,” said Dinh-Zarr.

She said the NTSB would also examine a crash that occurred at the Hoboken train station on Mother’s Day in 2011. “We are ready to hit the ground running,” Dinh-Zarr said.

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US railroads have until 31 Dec 2018 to install a system that is designed to slow speeding trains, but the train that crashed was not yet equipped with the system, according to the AP.

The technology is called positive train control and the deadline to install it has repeatedly been extended to reach its current 2018 date.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident. The federal agency is scheduled to provide an update on the crash at 12:45p ET.

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