Metro

Deadly train crash demolishes part of New Jersey station

One woman was killed and 114 people were injured when a crowded New Jersey Transit train crashed into the Hoboken terminal Thursday during morning rush hour, sending debris crashing down, officials said.

Disaster struck at around 8:45 a.m. when a speeding commuter train No. 1614 on Track 5 on the Pascack Valley Line collided with the platform and slammed into structural beams, causing the roof of the terminal to collapse, officials said.

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Train personnel survey the NJ Transit train that crashed into the platform at the Hoboken terminal.Getty Images
The collapsed roof after the train crashed into the platform at the Hoboken terminal.Getty Images
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An injured woman is evacuated at New Jersey Transit's rail station in Hoboken, New Jersey.Getty Images
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Onlookers view a New Jersey Transit train that derailed and crashed in Hoboken, New Jersey.Reuters
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Photos posted to social media showed part of the front of the wayward train partially inside the mangled terminal amid fallen columns, beams and wires.

Authorities cut power to that part of the building as soon as the crash occurred.

“The train just didn’t stop, it kinda like picked up speed and crashed into the building. The ceiling of the train fell on my head,” said five-months-pregnant passenger Alexis Valle, 24, who was riding in the first car.

“Somebody picked me up and passed me to somebody else to through window,” said Valle, who was among passengers who got out of the car first.

The train, which departed from Spring Valley, was due at the Hoboken station at 8:38 a.m. It apparently was running late, WABC reported.

Rescue crews removed trapped passengers from the train cars, officials said.

“We know what happened. We don’t know why it happened. The train obviously came in at too high a speed and didn’t stop, went through the barriers,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday at a press conference. “When you see the destruction up close, the silver lining is that there’s only one fatality thus far because the destruction is really significant.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said, “We’re not gonna speculate about the cause of the accident, the fact is we’re in the midst of the investigation.”

People are treated for injuries after an NJ Transit train crashed at Hoboken terminal in New Jersey.Getty Images

“What we know is that this train came in at a high rate of speed into the station and crashed through all the barriers, bringing it right to the interior wall of the Hoboken terminal,” said Christie, adding that the critically injured train engineer was “fully cooperating” with law enforcement.

Christie added, “We have no indication that this is anything other than a tragic accident.”

Witnesses said the four-car, one-engine train hit the barrier at the end of the line and went airborne, striking the ceiling of the terminal.

“#Hoboken 1st car hit concrete barrier with such force it went airborne & hit roof & brought roof down & crushed car down to the seats…” tweeted Daniel Payne.

Mike Larson, a 25-year NJ Transit employee, said on CNN that he heard a “bomb-like explosion.”

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“It was obviously … going faster than it should have,” Larson said, adding that the train “went up and over the bumper block, through the depot, which is a concourse for people to walk to the PATH and the ferry, and came to rest by the waiting room.”

He described the crash as “one of the worst days I’ve ever seen.”

Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ) told CNN that the first car went 30 feet in the air and smashed into an empty store in the terminal.

“It’s a miracle that it’s only one casualty,” Sires said.

An NJ Transit spokesperson said multiple people were critically injured.

Injured passengers were being treated at Jersey City Medical Center and Hoboken University Medical Center.

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“My train just ran full force into Hoboken Station,” Twitter user @jaydanahy posted along with a picture of the train.

Other passengers tweeted that they were lucky to be alive.

“People’s blood [was] on everybody else. People were covered in other people’s blood. It was crazy,” said Newbria Mitchell, 30, of Hackensack, who was riding in the first car and sustained a minor head and neck injury.

Gov. Chris Christie and Gov. Andrew Cuomo speak at a press conference.Getty Images

“I’m so grateful to be alive,” she said, adding, “The train was so crowded that the conductor never even came by to check anyone’s tickets because it was so packed.”

Commuter Steve Long told The Post he saw injured people, including a woman who had blood running down her knee and a man with a bloodied hand, walking through the station.

“Obviously I wanted to get out of there. They made it sound like the structures overhead weren’t safe,” the 35-year-old video producer said, adding that an official yelled, “Evacuate the area!”

Long added, “I was basically dazed.”

Leon O., a passenger in the third car of the train, uploaded a video to Twitter showing the chaotic moments after the crash — with people yelling and repeating, “Oh my God, oh my God.”

“I think I’m still in shock,” he told CNN, adding that he saw numerous injured people walking past him.

He said he wasn’t in a seat with a window, but doesn’t think the train slowed down when it was approaching the Hoboken station.

“There was no brakes, all of a sudden just crash,” he said. “Something happened.”

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

An injured man at the Hoboken terminal after the train crash.Twitter

The woman who was killed as a result of the crash was standing on the platform and was hit by falling debris, officials said.

Most of those injured were passengers on the train, officials said.

The Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are launching an investigation into the crash.

Cuomo said in a statement, “My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who were hurt, and I extend my deepest condolences to the families of those whose loved ones were lost in the fatal accident.”

The AP reported that the doomed train was not equipped with Positive Train Control, the system used to slow speeding trains. NTSB vice chair Bella Dinh-Zarr said at a press conference Thursday afternoon that the system, which will be required on all trains by 2018, can “prevent” accidents.

Dinh-Zarr said the NTSB will be looking at similarities between this crash and another crash that occurred at the same station on Mother’s Day 2011 that left 34 PATH riders injured when a train crashed into a bumper at the end of the track.

All rail service at the Hoboken station was suspended. New Jersey Transit bus and private carriers are honoring NJT rail tickets and passes, and NY Waterway ferry is accepting rail tickets and passes.

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Full service on the PATH trains will resume this afternoon.

The Hoboken terminal, which is New Jersey Transit’s fifth-busiest station, serves about 50,000 people every day.

Jersey City Medical Center has set up a hotline for families looking for loved ones at 201-915-2691.

“Right now, we don’t have any reason to believe that there will be any further fatalities,” Christie said.

Additional reporting by Danielle Furfaro, Kenneth Garger and Stephanie Pagones