At least one person was killed and scores injured, some critically, when a commuter train plowed into Hoboken station in New Jersey during the morning rush hour on Thursday, officials said. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told CNN one person was killed in the crash at one of the New York City area's busiest transit hubs. He said there were no indications it was anything other than an accident. MSNBC had initially reported three fatalities, citing medical officials, but later revised that to one death.
Dramatic images posted by commuters on social media showed the front of the train had smashed right through the station concourse at high speed, bringing down part of the roof, scattering debris and wreckage. The injured were carried on stretchers to waiting ambulances while a couple of hundred emergency workers shuttled in and out of the station. Dozens of police boats bobbed in the Hudson River alongside the terminal.
Accounts from officials at two hospitals said about 75 people were injured. A spokeswoman for train operator New Jersey Transit had earlier said more than 100 people were hurt, many of them critically. Some passengers were initially trapped in the wreckage, witnesses and officials said, but they were later freed. There was no word yet on what caused the crash. Federal investigators were on the scene. "The one thing we do know is that obviously this train that was travelling at a fairly high rate of speed," Christie said.
Hoboken, the last stop on the line, lies on the Hudson's west bank across from New York City. Its station is used by many commuters travelling into Manhattan from New Jersey and further afield. Linda Albelli, 62, said she was sitting in one of the rear cars when the train approached the station. She said she knew something was wrong a moment before the impact. "I thought to myself, 'Oh my god, he's not slowing up, and this is where we're usually stop,'" Albelli said. "'We're going too fast,' and with that there was this tremendous crash."
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