UpdateOne dead, scores injured in New Jersey commuter train crash
A crowded rush-hour commuter train crashed through a barrier at the busy Hoboken station in the US and lurched across the waiting area Thursday morning, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others in a tangle of broken concrete, twisted metal and dangling cables, authorities said.
People pulled concrete off bleeding victims and passengers kicked out windows and crawled out amid crying and screaming after the arriving New Jersey Transit train ran off the end of its track. It apparently knocked out pillars as it ground to a halt in a covered waiting area, collapsing a section of the roof onto the first car.
We never slowed down. We ploughed, I mean, right through the bumper. People were trying to smash some windows out
Michael Larson, a New Jersey transit employee, told CNN the train hit a concrete block at the end of the line with such force that it went airborne – hitting the roof and causing it to partly collapse.
“We have 100 plus injuries,” Jennifer Nelson, a New Jersey transit spokeswoman, told reporters at the scene, adding that there were “multiple critical injuries.” NBC and CBS reported three fatalities from the early morning accident. No official toll was immediately available.
Nelson said there were around 250 passengers on the train at the time of the crash, which occurred at around 9am, and that it was not known if there were still people trapped on board.
Passengers quoted by US media described the train ramming at full speed into the bumper at the end of the track.