CBS 2 – January 06, 2017
by CBS Local
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — A National Transportation Safety Board official said Thursday that a Long Island Rail Road engineer did not remember striking the end of a track and slamming into the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.
The crash on Wednesday morning injured 104 people.
NTSB investigator Ted Turpin said his team had interviewed the engineer on Thursday.
“The engineer was unable to recall striking the end of the track. He does recall entering into the station and controlling the speed of the train, but then the next thing he realized was after the collision,” Turpin said.
The engineer in the NJ TRANSIT crash into the Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken this past September also reported not remembering the crash. But Turpin said that should not be taken as a “common explanation.”
“I wouldn’t really string that together, you know, from accident to accident,” he said. “I had one in the past where the operator just came forward and told us that they remembered everything, so you know, not necessarily.”
The engineer told investigators he was not on his cellphone at the time of the incident, Turpin said. He said the agency does not yet have information about the engineer’s medical history and does not know if he suffers from any medical condition such as sleep apnea.
The 50-year-old engineer has been with the LIRR since 1999 and has been working as an engineer since 2000 after going through training, Turpin said. He had just returned to work after three days off, Turpin said.
Turpin also said event recorders indicated that the train was moving at a speed of more than 10 mph — twice the speed limit — when it came to its crashing stop.
NTSB investigator Jim Southworth earlier said it will take three to seven days to investigate the accident scene before they determine what caused it.
As CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez reported, a heavy tarpaulin covered the point of impact, where two cars of the LIRR train from Far Rockaway remained parked late Thursday.
On Thursday morning, many of the 430 riders who were on the train that crashed were back on board the LIRR. Some felt a little uneasy, but they were hopeful that another crash would not happen.
“Really slow ride in so they wanted to, I guess, be safe,” said passenger Siaida Bryant. “The people like myself who ride every day, we all sat down this time. Normally we get up everyone.”
A bit sore and heading back to work were some of the 104 people who were injured when the train came to a crashing stop Wednesday morning.
“I was a little traumatized, but I had to go to work,” passenger Renata Shiloah told CBS2’s Janelle Burrell.
“I was a bit hesitant, especially since I don’t feel 100 percent,” said passenger Robert Fried.
About 430 people were on board the train Wednesday when authorities said the train failed to stop and plowed through the bumping block at the end of track 6.
The impact lifted the front of the train off the track and sent it smashing into a small structure, apparently a work area. A rail pierced the floor of a train car, authorities said.
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