Police begin questioning engineer over 'high speed' of Hoboken train before it derailed, crushed one woman to death and left 74 hospitalized as Gov Christie insists crash was a 'tragic accident'
A NJ Transit train crashed into the Hoboken train station Thursday morning around 8:45am
Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, has been confirmed dead, as she was standing on the platform at the time
Authorities say 74 people were hospitalized as a result of the accident - including 'multiple' in critical
Passengers said that the train never slowed down as it approached the station
Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, has been confirmed dead, as she was standing on the platform at the time
Authorities say 74 people were hospitalized as a result of the accident - including 'multiple' in critical
Passengers said that the train never slowed down as it approached the station
The train brought down part of the station's ceiling as it crashed straight through track five
The crash appears to be an accident, and is not considered deliberate or an act of terrorism
A witness at the scene says he saw the driver of the train, Thomas Gallagher, 48, slumped over in his cab
A witness at the scene says he saw the driver of the train, Thomas Gallagher, 48, slumped over in his cab
Officials said Gallagher has been released from the hospital and is cooperating with authorities
The train was lacking a function that would have automatically slowed it as it was coming into the station
NJ Transit has suspended its service in and out of the station
However, PATH trains to and from New York City will resume for Thursday afternoon
By ASHLEY COLLMAN and REGINA F. GRAHAM FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 13:18 GMT, 29 September 2016 | UPDATED: 23:04 GMT, 29 September 2016
The engineer of a train that crashed at a 'high rate of speed' into the Hoboken, New Jersey train station during Thursday morning rush hour, killing a 34-year-old mother-of one and injuring 112 people, is cooperating with police.
The crash happened after 8:30am, and involved the No. 1614 Pascack Valley line train. The train left Spring Valley, New York at 7:23am and was scheduled to arrive in Hoboken at 8:38am.
Passengers said the train never slowed down as it approached the station, crashing at a 'high-rate of speed' into the terminal which tens of thousands of people use to travel into New York City every day.
The state medical examiner identified Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, as the victim who died in the accident.
Officials said de Kroon was standing on the platform when the train barreled into the terminal. It's unclear where she was traveling to.
De Kroon's husband was out of town on business and their child was at daycare at the time of the horrific accident. He is returning back to town.
More than 100 people were injured, with multiple in critical condition.
A witness at the scene said that he found the 48-year-old engineer, Thomas Gallagher, slumped over at the controls of the train. He is said to be cooperating with authorities who are questioning him, as he has been released from the hospital.
Law enforcement have said that the crash did not appear to be deliberate or an act of terrorism, however the exact cause is still under investigation. It's unclear how fast the train was going when it crashed into the terminal.
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Tragic: Fabiola Bittar de Kroon (pictured) is the woman who died in the tragic rush hour accident, according to the state medical examiner's office. Officials said de Kroon was standing on the platform when the No. 1614 Pascack Valley line train barreled into the terminal
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De Kroon's husband was out of town on business and their child was at daycare at the time of the horrific accident. He is returning back to town. Global software company SAP confirmed that de Kroon, a native of Brazil, worked there as a lawyer
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Passengers said the train never slowed down as it approached the station, crashing at a 'high-rate of speed' into the terminal which tens of thousands of people use to travel into New York City every day. Above a woman using an oxygen mask is helped by a Port Authority police officer at the chaotic scene
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Law enforcement have said that the crash did not appear to be deliberate or an act of terrorism, however the exact cause is still under investigation. Above a passenger who was travelling on the train is seen on the floor with a neck brace
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It's unclear how fast the train was going when it crashed into the terminal. Above a woman is seen lying on the ground next to the crashed train as NJ Transit workers survey the damage
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People were treated for their injuries in the parking lot after the NJ Transit train crashed in to the platform at Hoboken Terminal
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A commuter holds a bloody tissue to his face as he talks to a medic outside of Hoboken Terminal
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Some of the hundreds of passengers hurt in the crash were assessed by emergency workers outside the station
Wreckage and debris from train crash in Hoboken New Jersey
The National Transportation Safety Board has sent investigators to the scene to investigate the cause of the crash. Investigators will be looking into whether the driver made an error or if there was perhaps a fault with the train.
The engineer's father says he is married and has been working in train transportation since he was 19 years old.
At an afternoon press conference, Gov. Chris Christie said Gallagher is cooperating with investigators. Christie described the crash as a 'tragic accident'.
William Blaine, another train engineer who witnessed the crash, told NBC New York that he was with emergency responders when they found the engineer slumped over in his chair.
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New Jersey governor Chris Christie speaks to media as New York governor Andrew Cuomo (right) looks on after a New Jersey Transit train derailed and crashed through the station in Hoboken, New Jersey
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A train car is pictured in an aerial photo inside the New Jersey Transit Hoboken Terminal following a train crash in Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S. September 29, 2016
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A passenger is taken away from the scene on a stretcher by paramedics
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The Manhattan skyline is seen behind the Hoboken rail station after the crash which left scores injured
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Emergency vehicles are seen parked outside the station in Hoboken. The NTSB is investigating what happened
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Emergency personnel gather in front of the Hoboken Train Station after the horrific crash
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Construction worker Charles Frazer had just ordered breakfast inside the station cafe when he heard a 'large boom'.
'I saw the tail-end of the train, he said. 'It was going too fast.
'If I hadn't seen it I would have thought it was a bomb exploding. I was like ''holy s***''.
'Steel beams from the roof came crashing down on the first two carriages. Windows were popping out.
'People were trying to get out of the windows. There were live wires everywhere.
'A man was shouting at them to stay inside. They could have been electrocuted.
'A woman with a big gash on her leg crawled out. I picked her up and carried her to the sidewalk. There was blood everywhere.
'The cops and EMTs were on the scene very quickly. They started to get people out. It was very traumatic.'
There's a bumper at the end of each track that stops trains from crashing into the station, but the train was going so fast that it pushed right over the bumper into the reception area where people wait for trains.
'It came in at a high rate of speed, went through the bumper block, through the air, took the ceiling out. It was horrific. It was an explosion of concrete, dust, electrical wires,' a NJ Transit worker said.
The train involved in the crash was allegedly lacking a new piece of technology, called positive train control (PTC), that could have automatically slowed it down as it entered the terminal.
All NJ Transit trains are supposed to be outfitted with PTC technology by December 31, 2018, but not a single train has been updated and no employees have been trained on it, a government report reveals.
Global software company SAP confirmed that de Kroon, a native of Brazil, worked there as a lawyer in a statement to DailyMail.com.
'SAP is profoundly saddened and shaken by the news of today's train crash in New Jersey,' the company said.
'We can confirm Fabiola Bittar De Kroon was an SAP employee with our legal department in Brazil but left our company earlier this year. We express our deepest condolences to her family, friends, and all those impacted by today's tragic event.'
De Kroon and her family had just recently moved to New Jersey, according to a post on the Hoboken Mommies Facebook page dated August 5.
'Mommies, we are planning a day trip to the beach this weekend with public transportation,' she wrote.
'Just moved to NJ, so no idea which beach would be nice in a fair distance (traveling with a 18 months baby). Any tips? TIA!!'
The CEO of Jersey City Medical Center said at a press conference that they had taken many of the injured. Three were in serious condition in the trauma unit, eight were being treated for less-serious injuries in the emergency rooms, and 40 'walking wounded' were transported by bus to the hospital and were being treated in the cafeteria for more minor injuries.
As of 4:30pm on Thursday, only 13 people remained hospitalized at Jersey City Medical. Those 13 are in 'serious' condition, but are expected to survive their injuries.
Witness says the train went 'basically through the air'
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A man covered in a medical blanket is taken away in a stretcher after the fatal train crash in Hoboken
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Emergency workers help an injured passenger into the back of an ambulance in Hoboken
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An injured woman is evacuated from the New Jersey train station after the deadly crash. Witnesses said some passengers were trapped under concrete on the platform
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A man is seen being treated by EMTS in the parking lot of Hoboken Terminal in New Jersey. Most of the injured were triaged at the scene
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A firefighter and an EMT carry a passenger into the back of an ambulance in the midst of the huge emergency response
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Passengers run to safety through debris after the NJ Transit train crashed in to the platform at the Hoboken Terminal
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Commuters were forced to run across the tracks at the busy commuter station after the crash
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A man at the scene appeared to be covered in blood after the early morning train crash
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Commuters on the platform at Hoboken Terminal look at the debris from the damaged roof
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Donald Trump voiced his condolences to those injured in the tragedy early Thursday
NTSB spokesperson says that an investigation is underway
The rest of the patients are being treated at CarePoint hospital in Hoboken.
Many survivors took to Twitter to express their good luck at surviving the crash uninjured.
'I owe my life to God today. He has a purpose for me. That train missed me by feet! I'm still in shock' Twitter user @Mark_Antonious said.
One witness said that the train actually 'flew through the air' as it crashed into the terminal.
'The first thing I heard was the explosion of it hitting the bumper block,' NJ Transit employee Michael Larsen told the New York Times. 'The first half of the first car took most of the damage.'
Nancy Bido said she was in the middle of the train when the crash happened.
It just never stopped. It was going really, really fast. Basically, the terminal was the brake for the train
Crash survivor Nancy Bido
'It just never stopped. It was going really, really fast,' Bido said. 'Basically the terminal was the brake for the train'.
Photos from the scene show that the train brought down part of the canopy of the train station, with poles and wires ripped from the ceiling.
Another passenger, Bhagyesh Shah, said that a lot of people were standing in the first two cars of the train, since those cars are closest to the exit leading to the PATH train.
He says passengers in the second car had to break windows to get out of the train
'I saw a woman pinned under concrete,' Shah said. 'A lot of people were bleeding; one guy was crying.'
Shah himself gets on the train at Secaucus and usually stands near the window, but stood at the back of the train on Thursday.
'The next thing I know, we are plowing through the platform,' Shah said. 'It was for a couple seconds, but it felt like an eternity.'
Dust and debris settle after train came barreling through station
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NJ Transit employees look at the damaged to the train. Part of the station's roof collapsed and caused chaos during rush hour
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Sections of the collapsed roof are seen on the platform of Hoboken station in New Jersey in the aftermath of the crash
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A carriage of the NJ Transit train is seen through the wreckage. Around 28,000 people use Hoboken station every day
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Passengers are seen being treated on the side of the road outside of Hoboken terminal
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An ambulance leaves the scene of a train accident at the Hoboken Terminal on Thursday morning
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A flood of ambulances arrived at the scene after the train slammed into a platform
A passenger who spoke to ABC News says the crash was like 'something I've never seen before'.
'We had just left Secaucus and that's where about half or if not more than half of the train gets off the car to transfer to New York [Penn Station],' Corey Futterman said.
'We were approaching Hoboken and the train did not seem to be slowing down whatsoever and then all of a sudden everything just crashed and shook,' he added.
When Futterman got out of his train car, he says he walked out into a train station thrown into chaos.
'I immediately saw like the roof caved in and the car was on top of the platform and it was wires everywhere and total destruction inside. And chaos,' he said. 'People were freaking out and crying. People's faces were bloody.'
PTC SAFETY TECHNOLOGY WAS MISSING FROM TRAIN INVOLVED IN DEADLY HOBOKEN CRASH
The train that plowed into Hoboken station killing one and injuring more than one hundred people was missing the technology created to prevent major collisions.
Positive Train Control (PTC), which combines satellite and computer data to monitor train movements and prevent them from going too fast or hitting other locomotives on the track.
The PTC can override an engineer's actions - or lack thereof if, for any reason, they are unable to take control of the train.
A mandatory report by Federal Railroad Administration revealed that the life-saving technology is not installed on any NJ Transit locomotives.
Computer algorithms calculate the distance between a red light and a train. If a train is moving too fast for an engineer to stop safely, the backup safety system intervenes and automatically applies the brakes.
'It will not allow you to violate a speed restriction, a work-zone restriction or a red signal,' Joseph Szabo, a former head of the Federal Railroad Administration, told AFP. 'It just won't let you violate it.'
The National Transportation Safety Board has been calling for the national implementation of positive train controls for decades. The board has said that over that time it has investigated at least 145 PTC-preventable accidents in which about 300 people were killed and 6,700 injured.
An investigation into a 2008 crash between a Metrolink passenger train and a freight train in Chatsworth, north of Los Angeles, which killed 25 people and injured 135 others, found the collision could have been avoided if PTC had been installed.
Following the tragedy, politicians passed a law requiring the nation's main rail firms to implement a safety system by the end of 2015.
But progress has been painfully slow and last year, Congress passed a bill that grants a three-year extension to railroads before they have to install the long-sought safety technology.
The bill granted railroads until December 31, 2018, to install the expensive technology, and they can seek a waiver for up to another two years if needed.
A passenger named Jamie was in standing in the area between the first and second trains when the crash happened.
'We never really slowed down. It was the standard speed when it's going from point A to point B.
'We knew [something was wrong] because we saw that we were in the station already. But I'm not sure why it didn't slow down or if it did and he tried to brake and it didn't happened.
'We didn't see anything because the lights went off. It was more than a jolt. Everyone was thrown to the side,' Jamie said.
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Emergency services filled the roads outside the station after what was described as a 'mass casualty event'
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An aerial image of the terminal shows the devastating structural damage on the roof
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The massive emergency response to the crash is seen from above Hoboken station. Early reports said hundreds were hurt
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A New Jersey Transit train crashed into the Hoboken Train Station early Thursday morning
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Law enforcement sources tell NBC New York that as many as thirty people were injured
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Witnesses at the scene say it was the Pascack Valley train that caused the mass injury incident
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A green beam was brought down by the NJ Transit train Thursday morning
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An aerial shot shows emergency vehicles cramming into the parking lot outside the station
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Emergency officials walk toward the Hoboken Terminal following the deadly train crash during the morning rush hour
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A helicopter drops off emergency workers near Hoboken Terminal in the middle of the huge response
Panic outside Hoboken train station after commuter train crash
All trains service in and out of the station were suspended in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
While NJ Transit train traffic at the station will be suspended for the foreseeable future, as officials evaluate the damage to the terminal, PATH train service to and from Manhattan have been cleared to start again for the evening rush hour.
The Hoboken Terminal, which handles more than 50,000 train and bus riders daily, is just across the Hudson River from New York City.
It is the final stop for several train lines and a transfer point for many commuters on their way to New York City. Many passengers get off at Hoboken and take ferries or a PATH commuter train to New York.
I immediately saw like the roof caved in and the car was on top of the platform and it was wires everywhere and total destruction inside. And chaos. People were freaking out and crying. People's faces were bloody.
Corey Futterman
About 28,335 people take the PATH train into New York City from Hoboken every day.
Hoboken is NJ Transit's fifth busiest train station, with an estimated 15,000 riders a day.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was in Washington, DC, phoned in to ABC News around noon on Thursday to discuss his government's response to the crash.
He says he is working closely with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on addressing the issue. He says he is focusing on coordinating increased ferry service from New York to Hoboken for the evening commute.
Gov. Cuomo has cancelled his planned trip to Israel, for the funeral of Shimon Peres, to be on hand to deal with the crash.
Chaos in train station as commuters scramble after crash
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Commuters look up at the damaged roof and the front of the train at Hoboken Terminal
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A crowd of emergency workers are seen waiting outside the station after the crash
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Passengers are seen on the platform at Hoboken station after the crash forced services to be cancelled. The horrifying incident impacted thousands of commuters in the Tri-state area
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An entrance to the station is blocked off and guarded by emergency workers as authorities investigate the crash scene
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NJ Police officers and NJ firefighters arrive at the train terminal after the New Jersey Transit train crashed
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A police officer unwinds crime scene tape as he closes one of the entrances to the Hoboken Terminal
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Commuters are left stranded outside the station after the crash disrupted their morning journeys
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Photos from the scene show that the train brought down part of the station's canopy, leaving beams and wires exposed
More than 100,000 people use NJ Transit trains to commute from New Jersey into New York City daily. On Thursday evening, NJ Transit trains out of Penn Station in Manhattan were crowded with commuters forced to find a detour around Hoboken.
Steve Malfitano was trying to get from one city in New Jersey to another, but had to go into New York to get there.
'My 30-minute commute is turning into at least an hour and a half,' he said. But he added: 'It is what it is. It's better than what those people had to go through.'
In 2011, a PATH commuter train crash at the Hoboken station injured more than 30 people. The train slammed into bumpers at the end of the tracks on a Sunday morning.
The Hoboken Terminal, which was built in 1907 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has undergone waves of restoration, including a major project launched by NJ Transit in April 2004 that largely restored the building to its original condition. The station was extensively damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and underwent major repairs.
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On Thursday evening, NJ Transit trains out of Penn Station in Manhattan were crowded with commuters forced to find a detour around Hoboken. Above people rush toward a NJ Transit platform during rush hour at Penn Station
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More than 100,000 people use NJ Transit trains to commute from New Jersey into New York City daily. Above people rush towards a NJ Transit platform during rush hour at Penn Station
Terrified commuters inside Hoboken train station
HOBOKEN CRASH JOINS LIST OF RECENT INCIDENTS ON TRACKS NEAR NEW YORK
The crash in New Jersey on Thursday morning is the latest concerning incident on tracks in the New York metropolitan area or on routes leading into the city.
In 2011, 34 people were injured when a PATH service crashed at the same station. Reports of the incident suggested the train did not slam on the brakes hard enough.
It was lacking the controls that would have brought the train to a halt when it approached the platform. Similar technology was missing from the train that crashed on Thursday morning.
On May 12, 2015, eight people died on an Amtrak service from Washington D.C. bound for the Big Apple when the carriages derailed in Port Richmond, Pennsylvania.
The NTSB ruled the derailment was caused by the train's engineer, Brandon Bostian, becoming distracted by other radio transmissions.
They also said the crash would have been prevented by positive train controls, which were also not installed on the Hoboken train.
On February 3, 2015, three people were killed and 15 were injured when a Metro-North train crashed outside Valhalla, a hamlet in Westchester around 30 miles from New York City.
It rammed into a Mercedes Benz trying to cross the tracks.
On May 17, 2013, 250 people were injured when a Metro North train derailed in Fairfield, Connecticut. No deaths were reported.
The last fatal crash involving a New Jersey Transit train took place in February 1996. Three people died when two commuter services collided in Jersey City.
At the time, it was the worst train crash in the metropolitan region for 38 years.
In 1958, 48 people were killed when a Central Railroad of New Jersey service crashed in Newark Bay. The train went through a stop signal, derailed, and slipped off a lift bridge.
In March of this year, an Amtrak employee was hit and killed by a NJ Transit service in New Brunswick. He was finishing his overnight shift when he was struck.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3813781/As-30-people-injured-New-Jersey-commuter-train-crashes-station.html#ixzz4LgtuqWRZ
