A similar accident in nearby Hoboken, New Jersey, in September was much worse. There, a New Jersey Transit commuter train plowed off the end of a track, killing a woman standing in the station. Federal investigators are examining whether a more modern bumper or other barriers could have made a difference.
The train in Wednesday’s wreck originated in the Far Rockaway section of Queens and was carrying around 450 people, officials said.
“People just went flying,” passenger Donette Smith told The New York Times. “It was very scary.”
The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched investigators. NTSB investigator Jim Southworth said it will take three to seven days to investigate the accident scene before they determine what caused it.
He said event recorders have been recovered and the train’s engineer has undergone drug testing. The results of that testing aren’t known yet.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Thomas Prendergast said there is “a signal system that controls it coming in at limited speeds. But when you’re getting to the end it’s the locomotive engineer’s responsibility. And the train’s brakes have to work. All those things have to be looked at in the investigation.”
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(Sourced from agencies, feature image courtesy:couton2.com)
