Event recorder, camera recovered from NJT Hoboken wreck

The NTSB has recovered the event recorder and Railhead Corp. video recorder from the control cab of the lead car of New Jersey Transit Pascack Valley Line train no. 1614, which crashed Sept. 29 in Hoboken Terminal. Data from both devices will be analyzed at the NTSB’s laboratory in Washington D.C.

Debris from the crash prevented access to the event recorder and camera for several days. In addition to these devices, NTSB was able to retrieve the engineer’s cell phone, which was found in his backpack.

Based on the amount of damage and the distance the train traveled onto the station concourse after slamming through an end-of-track bumping post, NTSB investigators estimate 1614 was traveling “two to three times the 10 mph speed limit” according to an official briefed on the investigation who spoke with the the Associated Press. The official was unauthorized to speak about NTSB’s ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The official noted the 20-30 mph speed estimate is based only on the extent of the damage, not on data from the train’s cab car event recorder or forward-facing camera. The event recorder in the train’s GP40PH locomotive was recovered but found to be inoperable.

One woman standing on a platform was killed by debris as the train smashed through the concrete-and-steel bumper and knocked out pillars, causing a section of the station’s steel and glass outdoor roof to collapse. More than 100 people were injured.

Engineer Thomas Gallagher, 48 and a 29-year NJT employee, was not severely injured in the wreck. He has told NTSB investigators that he “has no memory of the crash, but said he was operating at 10 mph as he approached the station,” according NTSB Vice Chair Bella Dinh-Zarr. Gallagher, 48, said he “only remembered waking up on the floor of the engineer’s cab, Dinh-Zarr said.

Dinh-Zarr said NTSB investigators also obtained surveillance video and video from forward-facing cameras on nearby trains. “We will be able to look at the video to help us if for some reason there is no speed recorded, or if we are not able to get speed from other sources,” Dinh-Zarr said. “There are ways to use landmarks along the way.”

FRA regulations require passenger trains to have functional event recorders, and that they be inspected every 92 days. When the most recent inspection of the locomotive’s non-functional or disconnected Quantum Engineering event recorder occurred is not known.

Several months before the wreck, FRA inspectors uncovered numerous safety violations during an audit tof NJT’s safety and operations. The audit was launched after the FRA noticed an increase in incidents and found “dozens of safety violations” that needed to be fixed immediately, said the same official who anonymously spoke with the AP.