Agency found NJ Transit violations before crash

Hoboken (US): Federal rail officials found dozens of violations during an audit focusing on New Jersey Transit's safety and operations, months before a commuter train crashed, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 others, a US official told The Associated Press.

The official, who was familiar with an audit by the Federal Railroad Administration, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorised to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation.

The railroad administration began an audit in June after noticing an uptick in rail incidents and found "dozens of safety violations" that needed to be fixed immediately, the official said. The commuter rail agency was fined as a result of the audit, the official said, adding that federal agencies are continuing to work with the railroad to ensure compliance with federal rail safety guidelines.

New Jersey Transit trains have been involved in more than 150 accidents that caused more than USD 4.8 million in damage to tracks or equipment since Jan 1, 2011, according to federal data. There were 25 such accidents in 2015 and 10 in the first seven months of 2016, but none caused injuries or death. Most of the incidents occurred at low speeds and more than half were in train yards.

On Thursday, a New Jersey Transit commuter train smashed through a steel-and-concrete bumper and hurtled into the station's waiting area, killing a woman on the platform and injuring more than 100 other people.

The train's engineer, Thomas Gallagher, who was among those injured in the crash, has been interviewed by the National Transportation Safety Board, officials said, but the agency provided no further details about the interview in a news release yesterday.

The NTSB also retrieved an event recorder from the locomotive at the rear of the train and investigators are waiting to download speed and braking information it contains.

Investigators haven't been able to extract a second recorder from the forward-facing video camera in the train's mangled first car because it is under a collapsed section of the train station's roof.

The signals on the tracks leading to Hoboken Terminal appear to be working normally and officials completed a walking inspection of the track, finding nothing that would have affected the performance of the train, the NTSB said in an update yesterday. Investigators have obtained video from other trains that were inside the train station when the crash occurred.

Signs posted at a New Jersey Transit maintenance facility in Hoboken, dated February, said there had been 10 incidents involving trains in the prior two months, including five derailments. The sign said the "serious incidents reflect a dangerous trend" and that the main cause of the incidents appeared to be caused by human error.

A spokesman for New Jersey Transit didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.