N.J. Trains Collide; 3 Dead, 165 Injured

A train crowded with rush-hour commuters smashed into another passenger train after apparently missing a signal Friday morning in New Jersey, killing three people and injuring 165 others, 17 of them seriously.

The dead included the engineers of both trains and a passenger who was crushed between two seats. The front car of one of the trains was ripped apart as if by a giant can opener, smashing windows and sending sparks and metal flying in all directions.

At least 73 riders were treated at four local hospitals for cuts, fractures, neck and back injuries and other trauma.

The remote site of the crash in a swampy area hampered rescue efforts. Some passengers who scrambled down a steep embankment walked as far as half a mile in mud before they reached a staging area were ambulances waited. Helicopters had difficulty landing at the crash scene, but finally managed to fly 10 of the most grievously hurt to hospitals as other dazed passengers wandered around the wreckage.

About 750 people were aboard both trains at the time of the crash--650 on a seven-car train being pushed eastbound by locomotives into Hoboken, N.J., and 100 on a five-car train headed westbound, being pulled by a locomotive. The westbound diesel struck at a shallow angle, sheering off part of the side of the front passenger car of the eastbound train, where the engineer was seated in a control booth. That car and two following it derailed. Rescuers had to use special tools to cut away metal to free some of the passengers.

The impact also ripped open the front of the locomotive of the westbound train, pushing the engineer’s seat back at a 45-degree angle.

Officials of New Jersey Transit, operator of the commuter line, said it was too early to determine whether human or mechanical failure was to blame. But they said a signal was bypassed.

“The train that was moving east went 3 1/2 car lengths past the signal,” said Robert Randall, vice president and general manager of the line’s rail operations.

“We have to check the signals and we got to check the speed of the train. It should have had a stop signal. And we have to do a lot more investigation,” Randall said.

The eastbound train was supposed to stop at the signal while the westbound train passed. Then the eastbound train was to have switched onto the track from which the westbound train had come and continue into Hoboken. The trains struck nose-to-nose at a shallow angle rather than head-on or at right angles.

Recording devices on both trains, similar to those carried on airliners, will be examined and will enable investigators to know “when the brakes were applied, what the speed was, whether both [trains] were under power,” Randall said.

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New Jersey Transit Executive Director Shirley DeLibero initially said the wreck appeared to be caused by human error, but later said it was too early to tell.

John Miles was in the front car of the eastbound train when he suddenly saw the other train bearing down on him at 8:40 a.m.

“I said ‘holy cow!’ and hit the floor,” he said. “It felt like I was rolling over and over and over. I stayed on the floor and wound up on the other side of the train.”

Miles said he got up and managed to walk to a triage area.

“It was like a can opener had ripped open the right front corner of the car,” Bob Morris, a banker, told WCBS-TV. “There was debris inside the car and out.”

“It was like somebody took a sledgehammer to the top of your head,” added Andrew Irving, another passenger.

Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene M. Molitoris and Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, were among the federal officials who traveled to the crash site on the border of Secaucus and Jersey City, N.J.

Even though the accident took place a mere 5 miles across the Hudson River from New York City, it occurred in marshland, with the only access a number of primitive dirt roads.

Several cars teetered precariously on their sides, as frightened passengers scrambled to safety. Officials said the most serious injuries were in the front car of the Hoboken-bound train.

“People were on top of people, laying everywhere,” said Morris, who was on his way to work at Chase Manhattan Bank in Manhattan.

“The car, once it stopped, was teetering off to the side and people had to get out immediately,” said Mary Marinelli, who scrambled to safety.

Karen Chambers was in the lead car and suffered a broken nose and other injuries. “I got slammed into the seat in front of me,” she said. “I was covered with blood. You heard the scrape of the metal, and the woman in front of me went flying.”

Some stretchers were set up alongside the tracks. Rescuers finally managed to move another train close to the scene to carry some of the injured to hospitals.

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The New Jersey Transit lines where the accident occurred are not equipped with an automatic system designed to halt a train if the engineer runs past a stop signal, officials of the Federal Railroad Administration said. Such a system is in place, however, on the Northeast Corridor line that is used both by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit.

An issue likely to be raised in the investigations is the crash-worthiness of passenger rail cars. As on many commuter lines, New Jersey Transit trains operate push-pull fashion. Outbound from Hoboken, trains are pulled by a locomotive, while inbound trains are pushed with the engineer controlling the train from the front of the first passenger car.

Investigators almost certainly will question whether the injury count was higher because the lead passenger car, which was shredded open, struck the much heavier locomotive of the other train.