The New Jersey Transit train that crashed into Hoboken Station on Sept. 29 was going more than twice the station speed limit, a preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed. While the NTSB did not state the cause of the crash, it did confirm that the emergency-braking system was employed by the train engineer less than one second before the train collided with a bumping post on track 5 and then struck a terminal wall. A woman standing on the platform was killed, and more than 100 passengers and crewmembers were injured.
After investigators downloaded data from the train’s event recorder last week, they discovered the train began to speed up about 38 seconds before the crash, reaching 21 mph when it struck the post. The engineer, Tommy Gallagher, told investigators that the train was traveling at 10 mph when it entered the terminal track and that he woke up on the cab floor after the crash and “has no memory” of it, ccording to the report. Modified service resumed on eight of Hoboken Station’s 17 tracks on Monday, NJT said, adding that tracks 1 through 9 will remain closed as repair work continues.
Preliminary NTSB report confirms train was speeding before Hoboken crash
Reuters
