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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Hoboken train crash: authorities release names of victim and engineer | Hoboken train crash: authorities release names of victim and engineer |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| One day after a New Jersey Transit commuter train crashed into a major transportation hub in Hoboken, leaving one person dead and more than 100 injured, authorities released the name of the woman killed and the engineer driving the train at the time of the accident. | One day after a New Jersey Transit commuter train crashed into a major transportation hub in Hoboken, leaving one person dead and more than 100 injured, authorities released the name of the woman killed and the engineer driving the train at the time of the accident. |
| But the cause of the crash, and whether it could have been prevented by safety devices, remains unclear. Federal investigators have pulled one of the train’s black box data recorders from the wreckage and on Friday were struggling to extract the second one intact from a forward-facing camera on the front of the train, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported. | |
| The two recorders are expected to contain information on speed, braking and other conditions that will help experts piece together the operation of the equipment and the actions of the engineer immediately prior to the crash. | |
| The victim, who was killed by falling debris, was Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, a 34-year-old mother of one daughter described as having a “big and genuine heart”. | The victim, who was killed by falling debris, was Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, a 34-year-old mother of one daughter described as having a “big and genuine heart”. |
| “I am speechless and feel like the world stopped for some moments,” Cecilia Marques, a former co-worker at a company that specialized in travel to Brazil, told the Associated Press. “I had the privilege to get to know and work with Fabiola for some years, and I can say she was a great, talented” woman. | “I am speechless and feel like the world stopped for some moments,” Cecilia Marques, a former co-worker at a company that specialized in travel to Brazil, told the Associated Press. “I had the privilege to get to know and work with Fabiola for some years, and I can say she was a great, talented” woman. |
| De Kroon previously worked in the Brazilian legal department of SAP, a technology firm, the company said in a statement. | De Kroon previously worked in the Brazilian legal department of SAP, a technology firm, the company said in a statement. |
| She had just dropped her toddler daughter off at day care before rushing to catch a train, according to day care director Karlos Magner. | |
| “We had a good talk for like a minute,” he said. “She said she was in a rush.” | |
| The engineer of the train, Thomas Gallagher, a 29-year veteran of New Jersey Transit, was released from the hospital on Friday. He was “cooperating” with investigators. | |
| On Friday afternoon, 15 of the injured were still in the hospital, including two in intensive care. | |
| Meanwhile, early on Friday morning commuters faced a confusing and dark journey into New York City. Reporters on the scene captured images of a lightless and signless transit hub, where commuters had to navigate an unfamiliar station to reach a ferry to New York. | Meanwhile, early on Friday morning commuters faced a confusing and dark journey into New York City. Reporters on the scene captured images of a lightless and signless transit hub, where commuters had to navigate an unfamiliar station to reach a ferry to New York. |
| The #Hoboken crash site is boarded up, generators running, trains silent. pic.twitter.com/xvSOy2P6by | The #Hoboken crash site is boarded up, generators running, trains silent. pic.twitter.com/xvSOy2P6by |
| Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York avoided commenting on Thursday on whether positive train control, a safety device widely used in Europe and ordered by the federal government, could have prevented the crash. | Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York avoided commenting on Thursday on whether positive train control, a safety device widely used in Europe and ordered by the federal government, could have prevented the crash. |
| The speed limit heading into the station is 10mph. | |
| “The train came in at much too high rate of speed, and the question is: why is that?” Christie said. | |
| More answers were expected from a National Transportation Safety Board investigation, including from event recorders recovered from the accident, vice-chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr said on Friday morning.. | More answers were expected from a National Transportation Safety Board investigation, including from event recorders recovered from the accident, vice-chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr said on Friday morning.. |
| The implementation of positive train control has been delayed in New York and New Jersey, despite repeated deadly crashes in the area, including in the Bronx and in Valhalla, New York, on a Metro North train and near Philadelphia on an Amtrak train. | The implementation of positive train control has been delayed in New York and New Jersey, despite repeated deadly crashes in the area, including in the Bronx and in Valhalla, New York, on a Metro North train and near Philadelphia on an Amtrak train. |
| The crash has also put a renewed focus on New Jersey Transit, an organization some critics say has been “systematically starved” by Christie’s cuts and a lack of state transportation funds. | The crash has also put a renewed focus on New Jersey Transit, an organization some critics say has been “systematically starved” by Christie’s cuts and a lack of state transportation funds. |
| Despite high-profile recent exceptions, rail continues to be one of the safest ways for passengers to travel in the US. Each year, roughly seven passengers on mainline trains are killed, according to recent research. | Despite high-profile recent exceptions, rail continues to be one of the safest ways for passengers to travel in the US. Each year, roughly seven passengers on mainline trains are killed, according to recent research. |
| Cuomo and Christie both cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the role that the lack of positive train control played or did not play in the tragedy. | |
| The NTSB has been pressing for some version of the technology for at least 40 years, and the industry is under government orders to install it, but regulators have repeatedly extended the deadline at railroads’ request. The target date is now the end of 2018. | |
| Over the past 20 years, the NTSB has listed the lack of positive train control as a contributing factor in 25 crashes. Those include the Amtrak wreck last year in Philadelphia in which a speeding train ran off the rails along a curve. Eight people were killed. | |
| In 2011, a Port Authority Trans-Hudson, or PATH, commuter train crash in a separate section of the Hoboken station injured more than 30 people. The NTSB found the engineer failed to control the speed of the train as it entered the station and investigators also determined a contributing factor was the absence of positive train control. | |
| “They’ll have to answer for themselves, but at the end of the day if safety is job one ... then you have to have a better record than New Jersey Transit has right now,” said US Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, noting that the transit agency said in a 2016 report with the Federal Railroad Administration that it didn’t have positive train control on any locomotive or segment of track. | |
| “That means zero across the board,” he said. “They need to do better than zero across the board.” |