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2016 Hoboken train crash

Coordinates: 40°44′5.64″N 74°1′40.08″W / 40.7349000°N 74.0278000°W / 40.7349000; -74.0278000
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2016 Hoboken train crash
The cab car surrounded by the destroyed canopy
2016 Hoboken train crash is located in Hudson County, New Jersey
2016 Hoboken train crash
2016 Hoboken train crash is located in New Jersey
2016 Hoboken train crash
2016 Hoboken train crash is located in the United States
2016 Hoboken train crash
Details
DateSeptember 29, 2016; 7 years ago (2016-09-29)
about 8:38 a.m. EDT (UTC-4)[1]
LocationHoboken, New Jersey
Coordinates40°44′5.64″N 74°1′40.08″W / 40.7349000°N 74.0278000°W / 40.7349000; -74.0278000
CountryUnited States
LinePascack Valley Line
OperatorNJ Transit
CauseTrain operator's fatigue due to undiagnosed sleep apnea[2]
Statistics
Deaths1
Injured114

On September 29, 2016, an NJ Transit commuter train crashed at Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey. The accident occurred during the morning rush hour, at one of the busiest transportation hubs in the New York metropolitan area.[3] One person died, and 114 others were injured.[4] The train operator, who was in the cab car, was among the injured.[5]

Background

[edit]

NJ Transit is the third-busiest commuter railroad in the United States. Before the 2016 crash, the last fatal incident on the railroad was the 1996 Secaucus train collision.[6]

NJ Transit had been under audit by the Federal Railroad Administration since June 2016, before the crash. The probe was prompted by an increase in safety violations and led to federal citations of the agency.[6]

Accident

[edit]
Cab car #6036 resting against the terminal wall after the crash

Pascack Valley Line train #1614 left the Spring Valley station in Spring Valley, New York, at 7:23 a.m. EDT, bound for Hoboken. Entering the Hoboken terminal around 8:45 a.m., the train went over the bumper block and through the rail concourse, coming to rest at the wall right before the station's waiting area. The cab car sustained major structural damage.[7]

One witness reported that the train "never slowed down" as it entered the station, which is located at the end of the line.[8]

The train involved in the crash reportedly did not have an automatic brake system using positive train control (PTC), which is used to slow the train in case the engineer does not apply the brake in time. It is unclear whether PTC would have prevented the crash.[9]

Train #1614 consisted of four NJ Transit Comet V passenger cars (cab car #6036 and 3 coaches) and one NJT GP40PH-2B locomotive (#4214).[10] Train #1614 was a local, making all stops on the Pascack Valley Line.[11] Comet V Cab Car #6036 was leading the train at the time of the accident, with locomotive #4214 pushing from the rear.[12]

Casualties

[edit]
Damaged cab car

The accident caused one death and injured at least 114 other people. The Jersey City Medical Center treated 66 people for injuries from the crash; 53 of these were released from the hospital by the afternoon following the crash. The Hoboken University Medical Center treated 23 patients and the Christ Hospital treated one patient; of these all but two were released by the evening following the crash.[7]

The lone fatality, a woman standing on the platform, was killed by falling debris.[13][14] The victim was identified as attorney Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, a married mother of one and native of Brazil who had recently moved to Hoboken.[15][16] The majority of those injured were passengers on the crashed train.[14]

Impact

[edit]
Collapsed portions of the station roof after the crash

Initial eyewitness reports indicated that portions of the station roof collapsed, as did part of the roof of the train shed, and that water was spraying from the site of the accident.[8] Major structural damage to the station was reported.[5]

Following the accident, rail service to and from the Hoboken station (including PATH service) was suspended, and local buses and ferries, as well as Metro-North Railroad, were cross-honoring NJ Transit train tickets.[8] PATH service was suspended due to fears that the roof of the PATH station, where the derailed NJ Transit train came to rest, might collapse. PATH service into and out of the station was restored by the end of the day,[17] as was Hudson-Bergen Light Rail service in and out of the station.[18] Delays to rail service in the area persisted into the following week.[19]

Investigation

[edit]
NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr and other NTSB employees outside Hoboken terminal.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the accident. An NTSB "go team" was sent to the scene,[20] and the Federal Railroad Administration also dispatched investigators.[21] Although injured, the train engineer cooperated with the investigation,[22] and both the engineer and the train conductor were interviewed by investigators.[23] The engineer lacked any memory of the accident itself.[23] According to the federal investigators, the engineer "felt well rested and was unaware of any mechanical problems in the moments before the accident."[23]

Among other things, the NTSB investigation attempted to determine whether or not positive train control could have prevented the accident.[24]

The day following the crash, investigators retrieved one of the two train event recorders (black boxes) from the wreckage, but it was unusable.[25][26] The second black box was successfully recovered in the first week of October 2016.[27]

On October 4, 2016, FEMA claimed responsibility for what appeared to have been a hijacking of WKTV foreshadowing the disaster, which was under independent investigation by Snopes. FEMA told Snopes that they were conducting cross-nation tests for the EAS test and development message aggregators, using lines from various Dr. Seuss books as placeholder messages, when WKTV's EAS device mistakenly relayed to the public the messages it received in its testing environment. The chosen verse from Green Eggs and Ham and its proximity to Hoboken was purely coincidental, and FEMA had no culpability in the train crash.[28][29]

On October 6, 2016, the train was removed from the station area for further investigation.[30]

In November 2016, attorney Jack Arsenault said his client, the train engineer Thomas Gallagher, suffered from severe sleep apnea which was undiagnosed until after the crash. NJ Transit has a sleep apnea screening program but, despite that, a physical exam in July 2016 had cleared Gallagher for duty. Gallagher, aged 48 and with 18 years experience as a train engineer, said he had no memory of the crash and was lying on the cab floor when he woke up after the impact. An official briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press under condition of anonymity that the investigation is considering sleep apnea as a possible cause of the crash.[31]

Cause

[edit]

On February 6, 2018 the NTSB released their probable cause of the accident. The NTSB determined that the engineer's failure to stop was caused by fatigue due to undiagnosed sleep apnea. Contributing to the accident was NJ Transit's failure to follow their internal sleep apnea screening guidance to find at-risk workers and refer them for testing and treatment. NJ Transit failed to identify end of track collisions as a hazard despite numerous previous accidents. Additionally, the FRA was cited for their failure to require railroad to screen safety-critical workers for sleep disorders.[32][33]

The FRA exempted NJ Transit from installing positive train control (PTC) at Hoboken Terminal. The NTSB stated that PTC could not be relied on to prevent end of terminal accidents. They stated the need for other technology to intervene prior to the collision.[32] Hoboken Terminal has the original steel-and-concrete bumpers from when it was opened in 1907. The bumping post design was identified for only protecting low-speed unpowered accidents and therefore were insufficient in providing protection without technology to prevent end of track collisions. It is believed newer bumpers with hydraulic shock absorbers and sled-like friction shoes would have reduced the impact.[34][35]

Aftermath

[edit]

Following the train crash, New Jersey Transit issued new regulations requiring that engineers must be accompanied by at least one other crew member as they pull a train into Hoboken Station.[36] In addition NJ Transit also mandated a reduction in the approaching speed limit into the train station from 10 miles per hour to 5 miles per hour. The Hoboken Terminal remained closed until October 10, when Tracks 10 through 17 were reopened with a modified service schedule.[37][38] Full service was not restored until October 17; Tracks 5 and 6, where the train crashed, remained closed while repairs were carried out.[39] The pedestrian concourse reopened on May 14, 2017. Track 6 reopened for service in June 2017 and track 5 reopened for service sometime around September 2018.[40] The planning for permanent repairs to the concourse roof and supports were ongoing during this time.[41] In a February 2019 statement, NJ Transit stated that permanent repairs and renovations will begin in March and last for approximately one year.[42] In April 2019, NJ transit stated that all repairs would be completed by the end of 2019,[43] which they succeeded in doing.[44]

Similar accidents

[edit]

A similar accident occurred at the same station in December 1985, injuring 54 people.[45] The 1985 crash was said to have been caused by a lubricant that had been applied to the tracks to test train wheels.[22] In May 2011, a PATH train crashed in the basement of Hoboken Terminal, causing minor injuries. Investigators said that they will look into the possibility that the 2011 and 2016 accidents may have similar causes and circumstances.[46] The December 2013 Spuyten Duyvil derailment was attributed to sleep apnea, which is a suspected factor in the 2016 Hoboken crash.[31]

See also

[edit]

Other accidents where engineers had sleep problems:

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Jansen, Bart (October 13, 2016). "NTSB: Hoboken train speed nearly tripled before crash". Retrieved March 8, 2017.
  2. ^ Salant, Jonathan D. (February 6, 2018). "Feds determine cause of deadly Hoboken train crash". nj.com. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
  3. ^ Lovelace, Berkeley Jr. (September 29, 2016). "Update: At least 1 person confirmed dead, dozens injured in Hoboken train crash". CNBC. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  4. ^ Maag, Christopher (September 29, 2016). "One dead, over 100 injured after NJ Transit train hits Hoboken station". The Record. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  5. ^ a b "At Least 3 Reported Dead, More Than 100 Hurt After Train Crash at Hoboken, NJ Station". Fox News. September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  6. ^ a b Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (October 1, 2016). "New Jersey Transit Was Under Investigation Before Fatal Crash". The New York Times.
  7. ^ a b McGeehan, Patrick; Rosenberg, Eli; Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (September 29, 2016). "Hoboken Train Crash Leaves at Least One Dead and Dozens Injured". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  8. ^ a b c Maag, Christopher; Fallon, Scott; Bacon, John (September 29, 2016). "One dead, 108 hurt, many questions after N.J. train tragedy". USA Today. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  9. ^ Jansen, Bart (September 29, 2016). "Train in Hoboken crash lacked automatic brakes". USA Today. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  10. ^ "Surveillance Video Shows NJ Train Before It Crashed". ABC News. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  11. ^ "Pascack Valley Line Timetable" (PDF). NJT. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 7, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  12. ^ "New Jersey Transit crash at Hoboken station leaves 108 injured, one resident dead; investigators want engineer to explain what happened". The New York Daily News. September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  13. ^ Hanna, Jason; Feyerick, Deborah (September 29, 2016). "Hoboken train crash: 1 dead, more than 100 injured". CNN. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  14. ^ a b "The Latest: Mayor says train crash victim was from Hoboken". San Francisco Chronicle. September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  15. ^ "Acidente de trem em Nova Jersey mata brasileira e deixa dezenas de feridos". El País (in Brazilian Portuguese). September 30, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  16. ^ "Hoboken woman, 34, killed in NJ Transit train crash identified". NJ.com. September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  17. ^ Newman, Andy (September 30, 2016). "How to Get Home After the Hoboken Train Crash". The New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  18. ^ @NJTRANSIT (September 29, 2016). "#HBLR has been restored in/out of Hoboken and is running on or close to schedule following yesterday's train accident at Hoboken Station" (Tweet). Retrieved September 30, 2016 – via Twitter.
  19. ^ "How to get around following the Hoboken train crash". September 29, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  20. ^ @NTSB_Newsroom (September 29, 2016). "(untitled)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  21. ^ McGeehan, Patrick; Rosenberg, Eli; Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (September 29, 2016). "Hoboken Train Crash Leaves at Least One Dead and Dozens Injured". The New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  22. ^ a b "Officials ID woman killed in train crash that hurt 114". Newsday. September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  23. ^ a b c Schmidt, Samantha; Feuer, Alan (October 2, 2016). "N.J. Transit Engineer Has No Memory of Fatal Train Crash, Officials Say". The New York Times.
  24. ^ Bella Dinh-Zarr (September 29, 2016). NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr brief on Hoboken, NJ train accident September 29, 2016 (Video). National Transportation Safety Board. Event occurs at 2:08. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  25. ^ "Black box recorder recovered from wreckage of fatal New Jersey train crash". Associated Press. September 30, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  26. ^ Domonoske, Camila (September 30, 2016). "Federal Investigators Find 'Black Box' From Hoboken Train Crash". NPR. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  27. ^ "Hoboken Crash: NTSB Recovers Second Black Box, Operator's Cellphone". NBC News. October 4, 2016.
  28. ^ LaCapria, Kim (October 3, 2016). "New York Television Station Broadcasts Bizarre Warning Before Hoboken Train Crash". Snopes. Retrieved October 13, 2016. WKTV participated in a nationwide planned Emergency Alert System test, but a bizarre and unplanned message led to Hoboken train crash conspiracy theories.
  29. ^ Canedo, Nick (October 5, 2016). "Did TV station in Upstate NY broadcast 'train' warning night before Hoboken crash?". New York Upstate. New York. Retrieved October 13, 2023.
  30. ^ "Wrecked NJ Transit train removed from Hoboken Terminal". nj.com. October 7, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  31. ^ a b Michael Balsamo & David Klepper (November 16, 2016). "Engineer in New Jersey train crash had undiagnosed sleep apnea". Toronto Star from The Associated Press. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  32. ^ a b Tate, Curtis (February 6, 2018). "NTSB: Failure to screen NJ Transit engineer for sleeping disorder caused Hoboken crash". North Jersey Media Group. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
  33. ^ National Transportation Safety Board (February 6, 2018). "Railroad Accident Brief: New Jersey Transit Train Strikes Wall in Hoboken Terminal" (PDF). Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  34. ^ "Modern bumper might have mitigated fatal Hoboken train crash". NJ.com. Associated Press. December 22, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  35. ^ National Transportation Safety Board (February 6, 2018). "Special Investigation Report: End-of-Track Collisions at Terminal Stations Hoboken, New Jersey, September 29, 2016 and Atlantic Terminal, Brooklyn, New York, January 4, 2017" (PDF).
  36. ^ McGeehan, Patrick (October 5, 2016). "N.J. Transit Changes Rules for Trains Arriving at Hoboken Station". The New York Times. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  37. ^ Higgs, Larry (October 7, 2016). "NJ Transit to resume train service Monday at Hoboken Terminal". NJ.com. Archived from the original on July 29, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  38. ^ Porter, David (October 10, 2016). "Train service resumes after deadly Hoboken crash". The Record. Associated Press. Archived from the original on October 24, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2017 – via NorthJersey.com.
  39. ^ "Beginning tomorrow, expansion of rail service to Hoboken Terminal" (news release). New Jersey Transit. October 16, 2016. Archived from the original on March 16, 2018. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  40. ^ Moriarty, Thomas (May 14, 2017). "Hoboken Terminal concourse reopened 7 months after fatal crash". NJ.com. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
  41. ^ "RAIL: Hoboken terminal crash repairs will not be done until 2019". www.roadsbridges.com. April 3, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  42. ^ "Hoboken Terminal: Ceiling Repair & Renovation Work - Beginning March 2019". njtransit.com. New Jersey Transit (Alerts and Advisories page). February 2019. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  43. ^ Higgs, Larry (April 2, 2019). "Repairs to start on last remaining damage from fatal Hoboken train crash". NJ.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  44. ^ "Hoboken Terminal Repair". DMR Construction. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  45. ^ Narvaez, Alfonso A. (December 31, 1985). "54 INJURED AS TRAIN CRASHES AT END OF TRACK IN HOBOKEN TERMINAL". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  46. ^ Bever, Lindsey; Powers, Martine; Berman, Mark; Siddiqui, Faiz (September 29, 2016). "Train crashes into N.J. station, killing one person and injuring 108". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
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