There Was A Hoboken Train Crash In 2011

On Thursday morning, a New Jersey Transit commuter train crashed into a platform at Hoboken Terminal, resulting in one fatality and injuring at least 75, NBC reports. The cause of the accident is currently unknown. The last time there was a train crash in Hoboken was in 2011, when a PATH train collision at Hoboken Terminal injured 34.

Five years ago, at 8:30 a.m. on May 8, 2011, a PATH train carrying about 70 passengers ran into a bumper at the end of the track while pulling into the train station in Hoboken, New Jersey. At the time, passenger Humberto Roque described the crash to The Star Ledger via interpreter; he said that the train was “screeching” as it pulled into the station and collided with the bumper. “Then everyone went forward, and people fell,” he recalled. “People were screaming. People were banging on the doors, trying to open them.” The crash injured 34 people, many with what Mayor Dawn Zimmer described as “neck injuries.” Though numerous, the injuries were not life threatening.

Although the cause of the accident was not immediately apparent, an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board identified two major issues leading to the 2011 collision. The Board’s report states,

[The] probable cause of the accident was the failure of the engineer to control the speed of the train entering the station. Contributing to the accident was the lack of a positive train control system that would have intervened to stop the train and prevent the collision.

Although the 2011 accident injured dozens, today’s NJ Transit crash appears to be much more serious. An official statement from NJ Transit reports “multiple critical injuries.”

According to NBC News, the Regional Medical Examiner's Office in Newark and the Jersey City Medical Center have reported that one person was killed in the crash, and between 75 and 100 injured.