NJ Transit Pascack Valley Line train #1614 crashed at the New Jersey Transit Hoboken Terminal Sept. 29, 2016. The derailed train at a Hoboken station killed a 34-year-old woman on the platform and injured 108 people during the morning rush hour.
The removal of the debris and shoring up of unstable structures must be completed before National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators can access the train cars and recover the event recorder and camera from the control cab.
The place where the train came to rest is at a point where the terminal, canopy and shed come together, making debris removal very complex, as does the need to preserve the accident scene. Crews are working around the clock in 12-hour shifts to expedite the removal of debris and stabilization of the accident scene as quickly as possible.
The engineer of the New Jersey commuter train that crashed on Thursday told investigators he was fully rested but has no memory of the incident NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr said on Sunday.
Engineer Thomas Gallagher, a 29-year New Jersey Transit veteran who was injured when the train derailed, told investigators the train was running at 10 miles an hour when it was approaching the station, Dinh-Zarr said. She also said the train’s conductor told investigators he "didn't recall anything unusual" before the crash.
One of the data recorders recovered was not working, but there is another one which is newer, Dinh-Zarr said. "We are hopeful it would be working," she said.
Environmental and structural problems have delayed the extraction of the second data recorder and forward-facing video recorder that could help investigators understand the causes of the crash.
