Train Wreck Kills 108 persons in New York

The crash occurred around 8:45 a.m., when a commuter train
slammed into the Hoboken Terminal building, Jim Smith, a spokesman for New
Jersey Transit, said. It came to a stop on a busy concourse near a waiting area
as passengers inside the train scrambled to climb out of the windows.

“It’s just head-shaking,” Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey
said on CNN. “Obviously, this train was traveling at a fairly high rate of
speed.

Michael Larson, a New Jersey Transit worker, was in the
station when the train crashed. He said he crawled on his hands and knees to
pull people out of the first train car. 

Videos and photographs show the front
of the train stopped beyond the tracks inside the station amid a jumble of
mangled metal and hanging wires.

“The first car was pretty well destroyed,” Mr. Larson said.
“The whole roof was caved in. The seats were broken.”

Mr. Larson, whose pant leg was bloodied, said that “by
looking at the damage” he suspected there had been fatalities.

When the train arrived at the station, it went “over the
bumper block, through the depot” and came to rest at the wall right before the
station’s waiting area, Mr. Larson told reporters during a segment that was
broadcast on CNN.

“One of the worst days I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Rail service was suspended into and out of the station,
including service provided by the PATH system, which runs between Manhattan and
New Jersey. Local buses and ferries began accepting New Jersey train tickets as
a result of the accident, but ferry service to New York City from Hoboken was
shut down at midday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said.

Hoboken is a busy transit hub for both New Jersey Transit
and PATH, the rail line that travels to Manhattan. Hoboken Terminal is one of
New Jersey Transit’s most used stations with about 15,000 people boarding there
each weekday, according to figures from the railroad. More than 28,000 riders
use the Hoboken PATH station on weekdays. 

The train that crashed started its
journey shortly after 7:30 a.m. in Spring Valley, N.Y., and was going to
Hoboken along the Pascack Valley line.

Passengers on the train described the crash and its chaotic
aftermath.

Amy Krulewitz, who commutes from Hackensack, N.J., into
Manhattan, was riding in the fourth car of the train.

The train “wobbled,” she said, “then, boom!” She said the
front car was “crumpled.”

Emerging from the Jersey City Medical Center with a slight
limp and what she said was a twisted ankle, Ms. Krulewtiz said she had felt
“how the train was going off the tracks.”

“I was stunned,” she said.

People in her car immediately checked on one another after
the impact, she said.

Jason Danahy, another passenger, said he was in the fifth
car.

“From the fifth car, it felt like a major skid,” he said. “A
creaking noise and a skid. I was lucky to be on the fifth car.”

He exited the train. “I saw bloody noses,” Mr. Danahy said.
“I saw people crying.”

The Jersey City Medical Center treated dozens of people with
minor injuries and some with more serious injuries, officials said. 

A spokesman
for Care Point Health said 16 patients were taken to Hoboken University Medical
Center, and at least one to Christ Hospital in Jersey City.

The train’s engineer survived the crash and was being
treated at a hospital, according to a union that represents New Jersey Transit
workers.

Ben Fairclough said he was transferring at the station when
he saw the derailed train, which was blocking part of the terminal.

“There were wires down, water pouring from the ceiling, the
roof had collapsed and there was people climbing out of windows of the train,”
he said.

A video taken by Mr. Fairclough shows passengers climbing
out of the train, walking over the debris. “Clear the area,” someone shouts.

Mr. Fairclough said one person appeared to be unconscious on
the ground. Others were bloody, he said.

“Cars drive into houses,” he said. “This was a train that
drove into the terminal.”

Tom Spina said he was in the terminal when “we heard a loud
boom.” He walked toward the chaotic scene.

“You saw folks bleeding from the head, limping, folks were
on the ground,” he said. “It was awful.”

Mr. Christie and Mr. Cuomo were expected at the scene of the
crash on Thursday afternoon.

T. Bella Dinh-Zarr, vice chairwoman of the National Transit
Review Board, said the agency was sending investigators to the scene.

Matthew Lehner, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad
Administration, said the agency had also dispatched investigators.

The nearby PATH train station at Hoboken was the site of a
crash in 2011 that injured 30 people.