NJT Hoboken Crash

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This looks pretty nasty. I wonder what happened.
Anyone know anything?

[Dave V]

Just that it appears to have overrun the end of track bumper and crashed into the headhouse.  Lots of injuries.  Nightmarish.  CNN just reported the first fatality.  I will be happily surprised if there aren't more.

[davefoxx]

I've read that the body count is now up to three.   

DFF

[Bob Bufkin]

Let NTSB do their thing. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Just that it appears to have overrun the end of track bumper and crashed into the headhouse.  Lots of injuries.  Nightmarish.  CNN just reported the first fatality.  I will be happily surprised if there aren't more.

Ah, that's what I was curious about. I figured it derailed on the way in or something. I didn't realize there were terminating tracks there.

Either way, scary and sad. Hopefully it's only three fatalities.

[Ngineer]

Ah, that's what I was curious about. I figured it derailed on the way in or something. I didn't realize there were terminating tracks there.

These are the coordinates: 40.734985, -74.027824.

Use either Bing Maps or Google Maps and switch to birds eye view. The Hudson river is very close to the location of the accident.

   Javier

[Scott Lupia]

That is my office and the people involved are my co-workers.  The silence is just deafening right now.  I could go on and on but just keep these railroaders in your thoughts. 

Scott

[davefoxx]

Ah, that's what I was curious about. I figured it derailed on the way in or something. I didn't realize there were terminating tracks there.

Either way, scary and sad. Hopefully it's only three fatalities.

I've been there, as my brother used to live walking distance to the terminal.  And, it is just that Hoboken Terminal, as in, the end of the line.  NJT terminates there.  PATH has a tunnel under the Hudson River from the terminal, and you can also pick up ferries into Manhattan there, too.

If I remember correctly, there is some substantial end-of-track bumpers in the terminal, so I can only imagine the mess that made.  I cannot imagine that the train went through the terminal like the Silver Streak did in the movies.  That probably explains why the train took out a roof support as it accordioned.

DFF

[davefoxx]

That is my office and the people involved are my co-workers.  The silence is just deafening right now.  I could go on and on but just keep these railroaders in your thoughts. 

Scott

My condolences to you and your co-workers, in case you knew any of those lost today.  Thinking of y'all in Hoboken today.

DFF

[Spikre]

 
  sorry to read of this.
  always enjoyed going thru the Station,even the nite I had to
  camp out from missing the last train out to Suffern/Waldwick or Ridgewood.
  time can go really Sloooow sometimes.
  Ed,
   if they didn't have track bumpers the trains would terminate in the Hudson River.
   a thought to keep in mind.
      Spikre
       

[Ed Kapuscinski]

My condolences to you and your co-workers, in case you knew any of those lost today.  Thinking of y'all in Hoboken today.

DFF

Yes, absolutely! That's why I'm so concerned. I know a number of NJT folks, and I was quite worried about them all.

[davefoxx]

Current reports are still showing only one (not three) confirmed dead, so I'm not sure what the real figure is.  Depending on how fast that train was going at the point of impact, it might be absolutely amazing that dozens of people weren't killed.

DFF

[Dave V]

I don't want to engage in pointless speculation...but I am somewhat perplexed that the news is reporting that positive train control was installed...i.e., the conductor couldn't have overrode the braking system if he'd wanted to.  So what the heck happened?

[wcfn100]

I don't want to engage in pointless speculation...but I am somewhat perplexed that the news is reporting that positive train control was installed...i.e., the conductor couldn't have overrode the braking system if he'd wanted to.  So what the heck happened?

Where did you read or see that it had PTC?  I'm reading otherwise.

Jason

[Dave V]

Where did you read or see that it had PTC?  I'm reading otherwise.

Jason

CNN was talking about it while I was listening to it on XM.  Why, did they walk it back?  They had their "expert" talking heads describing all of the automatic braking equipment and essentially describing PTC.