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New Jersey train crash causes chaos, destruction

Commuters were tended to Thursday in Hoboken, N.J., after the train crash.Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

HOBOKEN, N.J. — A commuter train crashed into one of the busiest train stations in the New York area during the morning rush Thursday, killing at least one person, injuring more than 100 others, and creating a scene of chaos and destruction, authorities and witnesses said.

The crash occurred around 8:45 a.m., when a commuter train traveling at a high rate of speed barreled through the barriers meant to stop it and finally stopped against a wall of the Hoboken Terminal building, officials said.

The impact jolted commuters on the crowded four-passenger-car train and sent part of the terminal’s structure that covered the tracks tumbling down onto the platform.

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One person standing on the platform was killed by falling debris, Governor Chris Christie said at a news conference near the train station. The victim was identified by the New Jersey Medical Examiner’s office as Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, of Hoboken.

“An extraordinary tragedy,” Christie said, flanked by New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, and transportation officials. In total, at least 108 people were injured in the crash, Christie said.

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,” Larson said. “The whole roof was caved in. The seats were broken.”

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, Larson told reporters during a segment that was broadcast on CNN.

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

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Rail service was suspended into and out of the station. Local buses and ferries began accepting New Jersey train tickets as a result of the crash, but ferry service to New York City from Hoboken was shut down at midday, Cuomo said.

Hoboken, which sits along the Hudson River, is a busy transit hub for both New Jersey Transit and PATH, the rail line that travels to Manhattan. PATH train service was suspended after the crash, but was restored by Thursday afternoon.

Hoboken Terminal is one of New Jersey Transit’s busiest 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, Krulewitz 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.