NJTV News Correspondent Brenda Flanagan was in Hoboken the day after a deadly train crash. She spoke to Anchor Mary Alice Williams about the ongoing investigation.
Flanagan: Well, Mary Alice this is their first full day of investigation and the National Transportation Safety Board has been extremely busy. Ms. Bella Dinh-Zarr says that they have taken blood and urine samples from the engineer. They’ve scheduled interviews with the engineer and the brakemen. Now they recovered one black box but they’ve been unable to download information from that black box but they’re going to do it over at the manufacturer. They are still working to get the second black box and also outward facing video recorders which will help them determine speed and braking. They are looking for security videos from the station and they’re also surveying the tracks, both walking the tracks and they’re doing drone surveys to try and get any information that they can about what might have caused this. However, they emphasize this is the fact-finding portion of the investigation. They are not yet going to draw conclusions. What does remain, however, is a station that right now is closed down because of the serious structural damage and because of the investigation. That caused New Jersey Transit usual train riders to have to find their way around today to take a different route:
What was it like in Hoboken Terminal?
“Uh, a little surreal. Very quiet,” said Jennifer Johnson.
Johnson joined commuters who took the light rail and PATH — coping with detours and bus routes after yesterday’s tragic train crash.
Some walked through Hoboken’s mangled train terminal — a space that normally boards 15,000 people every workday — and said it felt eerily deserted.
“Kind of quiet. Construction workers. Everything is roped off,” said Tricia McKeegan.
“I actually was like, my eye on the conductor, making sure everything was going smoothly and everything was fine,” said Rafael Danela.
Was he a little nervous?
“I was cautious. Very aware,” he said.
“Today was actually surprisingly normal. That was the surprising part because nobody seemed very stressed,” said Mike Levin-Maistrenko.
Workers descended on the wounded building — removing wreckage, propping up the broken structural pillars. The century-old terminal could contain asbestos, which would complicate repairs. Inside, investigators retrieved a black box from the rear of the train. It and outward-facing video recorders will hopefully help the NTSB explain why the fast-moving train failed to stop, as eyewitnesses reported.
“It hit the block, the block is meant to stop a train. At that speed, it was going so fast — it went up and over the block. It literally flew through the air,” said eyewitness Michael Larson.
Investigators will look at several issues to determine the cause of the crash — including mechanical failure, track and signal problems and operator error. The engineer — 48-year-old Thomas Gallagher of Morris Plains, a 29-year veteran — is cooperating with the investigation. The crash injured more than 100 passengers — and falling debris killed 34-year-old Hoboken resident Fabiola Bittar de Kroon — who had just dropped off her 1-year-old at a daycare center.
The fatal crash could draw closer inspection of how NJ Transit operates. Critics charge that although it’s repeatedly raised fares — most recently, a 9 percent hike last October — the commuter railroad’s underfunded and facing another budget deficit.
“Everybody will have their answer and say this wouldn’t have happened if they had gotten a full subsidy, but it does shine a light that you have to be able to provide proper funding to an agency so you keep the infrastructure, including equipment, in a state of good repair,” said New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers President Len Resto.
NJ Transit trains also suffer mechanical breakdowns four times as often as the national average — 213 major mechanical failures in 2014, according to the National Transit Database. Critics say NJ Transit’s railroads are antiquated.
“A lot of this equipment is old and it’s equipment that needs replacement and the older the equipment the more it will break down,” Resto said.
Flanagan: Now we are live at the National Transportation Safety Board’s news conference. It is still ongoing. No word yet when that train terminal is going to reopen, but we’re hearing that it’ll take at least a couple days to remove the collapsed ceiling from the top of the train car. The NTSB plans to be here for at least seven to 10 days. A quite complicated investigation.