HOBOKEN – Investigators with the National Transportation Safety
Board interviewed the engineer of Pascack Valley Line train #1614 that
crashed into the platform of the Hoboken Terminal last Thursday, killing
one person and injuring 108 others. The train, which departed from Spring
Valley, was part of Metro-North Railroad’s system and operated by
NJ Transit; rammed the end-of-the-line bumper.
The NTSB said no interview summaries with the engineer will be released
until the interviews have been completed.
Environmental and structural issues prevent removal of the train from
the station. Debris removal must be completed before investigators can
access the train and have it removed.
Investigators have obtained from NJ Transit video from other trains at
the terminal to see what those cameras captured from the accident. The
event recorder and camera from the controlling cab of the accident rain
remain inaccessible to investigators.
The event recorder from the trailing locomotive #4214 has arrived at the
recorder’s manufacturer’s facility in Kentucky and NTSB personnel
are supervising the attempted download.
There were no signal anomalies found on the tracks leading to the terminal,
investigators said. A full signal study cannot yet be completed because
the accident train remains in the terminal.
The director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, Jeff Tittel, meanwhile, said
there needs to be “an independent investigation by the federal government,
state legislators, and others. Some of the failures we have seen on NJ
Transit rail lines are because equipment is too old or did not work.”
