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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Train Crash in New Jersey Kills 1, Injures 108

HOBOKEN, N.J. (CN) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie confirmed one fatality Thursday afternoon stemming from a mid-morning train crash that injured 108 at busy Hoboken Terminal.

The crash occurred at about 8:30, the tail end of rush hour. A Pascack Valley Line train originating from Spring Valley, N.Y., collided violently into the terminal's Track 5 platform. Witnesses reported that the train overran its stopping point, charging through a blocker at the end of the tracks and then through a passenger-concourse area before slamming into a wall separating the terminal's waiting room.

Victims were taken to Hoboken University and Jersey City Medical Centers. Images shared on social media show the impact caused part of the station's ceiling to collapse.

Several riders and witnesses told CNN that the train didn't appear to slow down at all during the crash despite Hoboken being the terminus for the train line.

At a press conference this afternoon on the tragedy, Christie was joined by his New York counterpart, Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Hoboken sits directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

Christie said the person killed in the crash had been standing on the platform at the time, and was struck by falling debris.

The train was going at "a high rate of speed" before the collision, Christie confirmed.

He said the train's conductor is in critical condition at a local hospital, but has been cooperating with the investigation.

Many roads directly around the station are still closed to begin the evening rush hour, including a five-block stretch of River Street. A few local restaurants directly around the terminal have set up makeshift aid and refreshment stations where they are hosting first responders and others in need, including commuters who may have been stranded all day after the crash halted many forms of transit that serve the terminal.

Rail service into the station is still suspended indefinitely, as is ferry service at the building. The PATH, an underground subway linking Hoboken to Manhattan, did resume service at 3 p.m. The station is directly underneath the terminal, but engineers determined its structural integrity was sound.

Hoboken Terminal is one of NJ Transit's busiest stations, with about 15,000 people boarding trains every single day.

The crash is the latest tragedy involving high-speeds to strike the Northeast's transit networks, coming soon after a 2013 MetroNorth derailment in the Bronx, N.Y., that killed four people, and a May 2015 Amtrak crash outside Philadelphia that claimed eight lives and injured more than 200.

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