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New Jersey Train Crash Leaves One Dead, More Than One Hundred Injured. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 29, 2016 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:00:00]

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: They are looking to talk to the personnel from the train, conducting, driving the train. And those will be their priorities. It's just an awful lot of moving parts here to deal with.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Mary Schiavo, stand by. I want to reset this new hour for our viewers just tuning in. Thank you so much. So you stick around, Mary Schiavo. Also Brynn Gingras, stay right here. It is 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time right now and we are following this breaking news of a transit train crash in Hoboken, New Jersey that happened during rush hour. Here's what we know so far. There are initial reports of more than 100 injuries. A passenger who was on board that train when it crashed just talked to me last hour. He says the very first train car was just demolished. The NTSB says it is gathering information right now. It's trying to determine what happened before it decides whether or not to launch its own investigation. Let's get right back to CNN's Brynn Gingras to fill us in on what we know right now.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, again, 100 people injured, that's a lot of people. With this train that we know just crumbled. At this point we know there are a lot of agencies lending aid at this point. The Federal Railroad Agency, the NTSB, of course local law enforcement, local paramedics, we know a number of ambulances were sent to the scene to transport any of these injured people to hospitals. We can see there was a triage center also set up right outside of that train station. We know many train stations or that train station, rather shut down and train service is certainly affected for people who are trying to get into the city or commute, rather, at this time in the morning. We also know there is structural damage so at this point urban and rescue teams including New Jersey Task Force One which is made up of volunteers as well as rescue teams, has responded to the scene and is not only trying to shore up any damage to the station but also go in and see if people are trapped and if they can help rescue anyone at this point. But 100 people injured. Serious injuries included. It is.

COSTELLO: OK. So Brynn, stand by. Want to go right to the scene. Joining me now live from that transit station is CNN producer Paul Murphy. He was actually standing right outside of the station. He heard the crash. What did it sound like, Paul?

PAUL MURPHY, CNN PRODUCER: I actually didn't hear the crash. I heard the sirens afterwards. I live about a mile away, little bit less than a mile and the sirens, and my apartment were like I was there. So I didn't get woken up by the crash, I got woken up by the sirens, if that can speak to anything. Sorry. It's going to get loud. There's another fire engine arriving. What I can speak to, though, I have taken this train a number of times. The way you actually get into Hoboken terminal is you have to go in a tunnel. And in this tunnel you are not going very fast. Even in the rail yard after the tunnel you are still not going fast. So -- if you know, if this train was operating normally or at a normal speed, it wouldn't have crashed into this at a very high rate, if it was following the speed restrictions in the yard. Because you kind of creep through the yard out of the tunnel because you exit the tunnel and you are in the rail yard and about half a mile, you are in the station. So --

COSTELLO: OK. So Paul, stand by. I just want to talk to my director for just a second and excuse -- I would like to get the Leon's video from his Twitter feed racked up so I can show our viewers exactly what happened minutes before the crash. Do we have that queued up and ready to go? OK. This is it. So let's listen.

So you can see the chaos here and all of the damage. The person who took this video via cell phone, his name is Leon. I talked to him last hour. We are trying to rerack the tape of that interview from last hour so you can hear it. But he said when he was on the train it didn't feel like the train slowed down at all. He was in the third car of that train. The train came barreling through the station. He heard that loud crash. He got off of the train and he saw all of this damage. He said a wall came down. Part of the roof came down. He said wires were hanging everywhere. Water was dripping down from the ceiling. The drain was heavily damaged as you can see. You can see the crumpled part of that one train where that transit worker. He's looking into the car. We do believe that people were trapped inside of that car and had to be cut out

[10:05:16] of the car. -- Hopefully we will know more because the New Jersey Transit spokesperson is about to speak any moment now. Of course when that happens, we will bring it to you live. We do have another reporter on the scene right now. Jean Casarez, what can you tell us?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we are at the location right here. I can tell you that I see what appears to be hundreds of emergency responders, law enforcement, I see fire engines. We have already seen at least one ambulance leave the scene. We see transit police. We see many, many vehicles here. This is a situation that is active situation. It's also on the water's edge. I'm in Hoboken, New Jersey and the train station, very historic train station what I'm seeing. It's right on the water's edge and there is a helicopter, I cannot confirm if that's a medevac helicopter but I can confirm there is a helicopter that appears to be ready to take off at any moment just right there at a platform for the helicopters. But Carol, this is definitely an emergency situation. We understand that there are at least 100 injured. Search and rescue have been deployed to actually try to shore up that roof that had collapsed inside the terminal and to help evacuate anyone that is still in the train. What we are learning right here is that the train basically went, the front car went right into the station. And so obviously people were standing there. It's morning rush hour here in New York and in Hoboken, people going to New York for work. And so it's just a very active situation with I would say hundreds of emergency personnel on the scene. Carol?

COSTELLO: All right Jean, you stand by. I was telling our viewers about Leon. You know, he took the video that you are looking at right now. And he talked about what this thing looked like shortly after the crash. Let's listen.

LEON OFFENGENDEN, WAS PASSENGER ON THE TRAIN: I made my way to the front and there was a woman coming out of the second car, I believe, who had, you know, blood on her face. And then I went to the front, the first car, the front car was essentially off the rails into the - on the track station and into the building of the station with the roof sort of collapsed, you know, around it. Wires are hanging everywhere and you know, I just noticed water sort of, you know, just seeping down past the track, on the train and the tracks. You know, some of the train station crew was looking into the windows. The windows were all mangled and crashed in that first car and I think I saw, you know, a person lying down, I'm hoping that they're OK, next to the train. At that point, you know, sort of they directed us away from you know, the front car and you know, we left, we crossed the tracks and climbed up on to the train, you know, again back to the train track and then on to the platform where a lot of people were waiting and police were sort of getting on to the scene, I think. At which point there was a man there actually kind of very agitated and I just remember one of the train crew was telling him to calm down and he was yelling, telling them he's not going to calm down. It was pretty chaotic. Let me tell you. People are just in shock. Everybody sort of has their photos and cameras out and iPads. It was pretty intense. I took a few snaps and video, posted online. --

COSTELLO: Leon, was the train going fast? Could you tell if it was going at a normal speed as it approached the station?

OFFENGENDEN: You know, I was sitting in the seat where I couldn't see the window and I didn't notice that you know, the train was going at an accelerated pace. It was just going the speed it was. I guess now looking back at it. I think it didn't slow down. It definitely didn't slow down. There was no brake. All of a sudden, just crash. So something happened you know obviously and the brakes or the train engineer didn't brake as we came into the station.

COSTELLO: OK. Let's talk about what Leon saw. I want to bring back in Mary Schiavo, she is the former inspector general. Mary, are you there? -- Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation. I wanted to get that out before we talk about what Leon saw. He said the first car looked like it catapulted into the platform, into the building, the roof collapsed, he said there was wire and water and everything. What does that sound like to you?

SCHIAVO: A speed. It sounds like a higher speed crash. The train was traveling in excess of the speed that it should have been going. He very wisely said, I mean, there are many causes or there could be many causes for that, engineer inattention, a problem with the braking mechanism. Those are usually the two [10:10:16] things you have that cause a crash like this. So you know, at this point, I said the NTSB is supposedly still debating whether they are going to come into this one. I just can't imagine them not coming into this. This is a very serious crash and to fail to stop at a station precisely where there are so many people waiting to get on to the train and waiting around and milling around the station, it's a big issue. Of course, the law enforcement is there and they have to be because people will be wondering did somebody tamper with the train? Is this a situation where somebody has tried to do something to cause this? Now, it's very difficult with a train because as I mentioned a little bit ago, you don't just have one brake you know, one set of brakes, if you will. The engines have braking mechanisms on them. Some of the cars, depending upon the age of the cars, have mechanisms on them, braking mechanisms, as well. I mean, there's just more than one brake line, if you will. Like in the movies where the bad guys cut the brake line, it's much more complicated than that on a modern locomotive and modern train. But they will be looking at that possibility as well. When he said he felt no indication the train had slowed, it was already slowed as the other commentator or person from the train mentioned, it goes through a tunnel and through the rail yard. When you go on that part of the train, I have been on this train, through the rail yard it's going slower than it would be anyway on the track when you're traveling your journey so you would already have been slowed down some but if you didn't apply the final braking, that might be the speed at which it hit the -- building which would have probably been 15, 20 miles an hour when it should have been going two or three miles an hour.

COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you this. If the train ran into a wall and the roof collapsed, does that mean the train would have jumped the tracks?

SCHIAVO: Yes. The train would have jumped the tracks or been extended beyond where it was supposed to stop. It had to have gone obviously off of the tracks or beyond the end of the tracks depending on how this train was coming into the station. But yes, at that point it was off the track.

COSTELLO: And of course, we've been telling our audience there, many, many emergency vehicles on the scene. Brynn Gingras is here. Every state agency and city agency available is helping now. There's a triage going on at the scene. Describe that for us.

GINGRAS: Right. I mean, there's a triage center that we saw with the tents right outside the train station. Likely that's where people are originally being treated, if not, you know when they arrive seeing serious injuries they would immediately be put into an ambulance. But of course then there are the tents where people with maybe more minor injuries can be treated immediately. But we should also mention now the Port Authority police they are also sending people to help out as well. Now that's like we talked about, how all these agencies sort of help each other out. Port Authority doesn't typically handle New Jersey Transit. The Port Authority we know does the airports and the stations in New York City and parts of New Jersey, but certainly with them helping out, it just speaks to the effect of how many agencies are helping out with this situation. COSTELLO: And how many people this involves? Because 15,000 people a week board this particular train terminal, the Hoboken terminal. So a lot of people were there, too, where they have to clear the crowd so they can get to the injured. So you can imagine how chaotic it must have been right after this crash.

GINGRAS: Oh, extremely chaotic. And also when you talk about all those people being at that train station during this time, that's the scary part for me, it's because you think about that train. Most people, this is maybe one stop before they head into the city and get off the train for work, so most people are standing up. Most people are getting ready to just you know, get off the train. And that's a scary part for me. And that speaks to the hundred plus people injured more seriously. --

COSTELLO: You know people are waiting to get on to the train they stand very close to the tracks.

GINGRAS: You can only hope since we heard reports from that witness and also from officials that this train was going at a high speed, you can only hope that people saw that and backed away at this point. But certainly when a train is going fast, you can't exactly react that fast.

COSTELLO: I wouldn't think it's going to go by. So we don't know exactly what happened. Mary, I want to go ask you about something else that Leon, you know the guy that was on the third car of this train, told me earlier this morning. He said that it didn't feel like the train was slowing down. There's a huge crash and all the lights went out. Why would the lights go out?

SCHIAVO: Oh, on the train, the lights would go out because they lost power. The front of the train, the engine was obviously damaged severely and it would have put the lights out on the train because of the power lines and the generator that run the lights are up there. So that's why they would have gone out on the train. In the station, it would have had to have been because when the train jumped the tracks and hit the wires, he said there were wires hanging down, they obviously cut the lights. But on the train they would go out because it lost the power,

[10:15:16] because the generators were damaged in the crash.

COSTELLO: So do we have any people available on the scene to talk with us right now? Michelle? I'm talking to my executive producer right now. Michelle? We are working on it. OK. So they are busy out there gathering information. So I totally understand why they are not available at this very moment. Mary, we have been telling people, too, that the NTSB already on the scene. I would suspect they are already asking questions of people.

SCHIAVO: Yes. And they do that. They have certain rules they have to follow when questioning the engineer and the engineer is allowed depending upon what the work situation is there, they are allowed to have counsel and their union representatives present when that occurs. They can decline that, go ahead and talk but the NTSB is certainly looking for all the eyewitnesses and ear witnesses at the station. But remember, the NTSB is actually a fairly small federal agency. People don't - the size of it, it's about 500 people total and they have to deploy to crashes, disasters, accidents, all over the world. So they don't have vast hordes of people that descend on the station to interview. So what happens is they rely often on local authorities as well so the police, Hoboken police, transit police, the FBI would have dispatched people there just to make sure to determine if there is any cause to worry that this is a criminal event. So the NTSB relies on a lot of other government agencies to help them do their job because they are so small. So they will also be depending upon the local police and local authorities to interview as many people as they possibly can, get names and addresses, most important, of contact information for people. People who were there and saw it might have decided not to take the train after all so they would be leaving the station and the station closed. So there are an awful lot of people there trying to interview and one of the things the NTSB has to do is then pull all these threads together. Often they have to come in, and go back and get the local police reports, and see what people told the police, see what they said at the hospitals, et cetera. So it's a real gathering of information.

COSTELLO: I can't even imagine. Just to bring our viewers, up to date, if you're just tuning in to the "Newsroom." A transit train has crashed into a platform in Hoboken, New Jersey, it happened during rush hour. There are initial reports of more than 100 injuries and some of those injuries are quite serious. I do have a person who was on board that train earlier this morning. His name is Bhagyesh Shah. Bhagyesh, are you with me?

BAGYESH SHAH, PASSENGER ON THE TRAIN THAT CRASHED: Yes, hi. 100 injuries wow.

COSTELLO: Yes. Yes, it's terrible.

SHAH: I was at the end of first car you know, between the first and second car. I got on the train in Secaucus at the last stop before it stops in Hoboken. It's a usual travel but when the train approached Hoboken it did not slow down. It's not that fast. It's usually not that fast. It wasn't that fast today as well but it just did not slow down, it did not stop. It just ran right through the backstop.

COSTELLO: So could you tell what it crashed into? Did you know what was happening?

SHAH: No. We had no idea. Usually the engine of the train is at the back, right, and the first thing that crashed was the passenger car. So we had no idea this was happening. We had no idea we were going to crash. I didn't notice enough because it's my usual travel -- usual train that I take too often. So for me, it wasn't that concerning because I was not paying attention. But the next thing I know, I'm on the floor and we are plowing through something, probably the parts of the roof. And when the train came to a stop, I could see the parts of the roof on the first car and I could see some of the debris next to me, like two feet from me.

COSTELLO: So did the lights go out in your car? SHAH: Yes. Yes. That's what I noticed first thing. You know, we were thrown off our feet. I was lying on the floor when that was happening and the lights went off. -- I was hoping the train would stop now but it just didn't stop. It kept going and going and going. And then at the end of it, it felt like eternity. It probably was like three, four seconds, four, five seconds, but I don't know. I just cannot comprehend it right now.

COSTELLO: So Bhagyesh, how many people were on that train car with you? Did you all just fall to the floor?

SHAH: It was - it was you know -- it was full. The train was full. The first and second cars usually are full because you know people try - people are in a hurry. They want to get to the back

[10:20:16] train. Back train is closer to the first and second car. So usually the first and second cars are the - you know people getting in a lot. So this, today, it was even more than usual. I generally stand at the end of the second car but I was not able to do that because there were a lot of people there.

COSTELLO: So once you got -- how did you exited? The doors open and you exited the train? Is that how you got out?

SHAH: No, no, no. The doors did not open. A few people opened the emergency window. That's how I got out. I had to jump off.

COSTELLO: Oh, that must have been really alarming. I can't even imagine how that would be.

SHAH: Yes, I mean, you think about this and you hear the news, you watch the news and then when it happens to you, that's when you realize how lucky you are.

COSTELLO: So was there anyone unable to get out of your car?

SHAH: Yes. Most of the people in my car were standing and in upright position when I got off. I heard one guy had injuries to his head. He was bleeding. But when I got down, I saw other injuries, most of them from the first car.

COSTELLO: Did you see any emergency vehicles cutting the car open to get people out?

SHAH: I saw a bunch of people trying to get someone out from under debris. I think there was a woman, she looked Indian, she was pinned under some debris next to the first car, and everyone -- there were seven, eight people that tried to pick that up. They were able to get it out of there and I saw an old man, too, who had head injuries trying to get out of the train from the first car.

SHAH: Bhagyesh, hold on for just a second, stay with me. We have new information to share. Brynn Gingras has this. What is it Brynn?

GINGRAS: Yes Carol, we are just getting confirmation that there was at least one fatality with this crash at this point. Of course, it's still early. We hope that there aren't more. But authorities there on the scene, we can confirm at least one fatality in addition to the hundred plus people injured with this crash. Unclear if this person was actually on the train and remember, the reports are that this train went speeding into, slamming into the station or if this person was actually in the station at the time of this crash.

COSTELLO: Oh, Bhagyesh, you heard the news. 100 injured, at least one person died in this accident. When you got off the train and you were standing, you know, at the station, what did you see? What did the train look like? We lost Bhagyesh. But thank you so much Bhagyesh Shah for joining me this morning. Let's go back to the scene now. Jean Casarez is there live and we just got reports Jean, that at least one person has died in this crash. We don't know if the person was standing on the platform or was you know, on board one of the train cars. But I don't know if you heard that last witness that I was interviewing, what he said. He was in the second car and he said there were a lot of people on the floor with head injuries and some people were bleeding and the doors didn't open to the train. He had to climb out the emergency window.

CASAREZ: Right. I did hear that. You know, Carol, from my vantage point, right here and we are outside the train station, I'm seeing so many emergency responders but what is extraordinary here is that I am seeing many fire engines. From my vantage point, I don't see a lot of ambulances. I don't hear ambulances. We saw one ambulance when we were on our way, about a block away headed out to a hospital, it appears, but I just saw I would say 50 firefighters walking into that train station. I have not seen from my vantage point anybody that looks civilian in nature coming out of the train station. It's calm here. Let me tell you, they responded quickly. You got the New Jersey state police, the helicopter is the New Jersey state police that is here ready to go. It has not taken off. You have got the local sheriff's departments. You have got search and rescue to try to shore up the roof of that building and to get people trapped out of that train. But it's a very calm situation but the emergency response here is tremendous. But at this point the majority of what I hear are emergency responders. I am not seeing victims.

COSTELLO: You know we saw a blue tent-like thing set up outside of the train station and we were thinking maybe they were triaging right there. Did you see anything like that, Jean?

CASAREZ: I haven't seen that but it does make sense, since I'm not hearing

[10:25:16] ambulance sirens. I am not just seeing that at all. I'm not seeing victims. So there are many vantage points of this train station but triaging at this point does make sense with what I'm not hearing, right? The fact of taking people to a hospital.

COSTELLO: Are there many people still milling about or have they pretty much cleared it out?

CASAREZ: No, there are a lot of people here. I heard somebody just ask where they could get the ferry. So people are so kind to get to work here and they don't know what to do. They are standing here. They realize transportation from Hoboken into New York City or any other location they are going. It's still the morning. People are on their way to work. So I think this Hoboken, New Jersey is just sort of at a standstill right now, people not knowing exactly what to do, realizing there's an emergency here.

COSTELLO: Earlier, one of our producers on the scene, Paul Murphy, told us there were buses available but there were long, long lines.

CASAREZ: Well, that would make sense. We were able to get into New Jersey from New York City rather quickly, but it was jam-packed to go the other way. It would be very difficult situation. So buses would be the only way I think at this point to get people where they have to go.

COSTELLO: All right. Jean Casarez, I am going to let you go to gather more information. On the phone now with me now is Rene Marsh, she is our aviation and government regulation correspondent. What can you tell us, Rene?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, I have been in communication with the Federal Railroad Administration. I know that they are in route now, their investigators are in route. They will be essentially part of this investigation to figure out what went wrong here. Of course, the key question is did this section of track where this happened, did it have positive train control, that technology we heard so much about. We talked a lot about it during that Philadelphia, that deadly crash that happened there involving Amtrak. It's unclear at this point. The NTSB still has not made their determination whether they will launch. They are still trying to gather the facts obviously all of the information is just coming in. They are trying to determine whether they should be a part of this investigation. But you know, as we have been talking about throughout the morning, some of the key questions are going to be the track itself and looking at whether there was anything wrong with the track and also the person who was in control of this train. So we have two agencies, one still collecting information, the NTSB, and we do know for a fact that FRA is currently in route Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. You know I talked to a guy who was on the second car of that train that crashed, Rene. He said the doors didn't open. He had to crawl out the emergency window. And some people couldn't get out because of course they were injured and lying on the floor. That's pretty scary.

MARSH: It is scary. And that's another section that investigators are going to be looking at, the survivability of these train cars. I mean, as I hear some of the witness accounts, although you know, we don't have a full picture as far as injuries at this point, I mean, we heard similar stories at the time of that Amtrak crash where people were stuck inside of these cars. So investigators as far as safety wise are going to be looking at how - you know, how well these train cars held up, are there any improvements to be made to these train cars to possibly prevent injuries as well as make it easier for exit point. All those are going to be factors -

COSTELLO: Rene, let me interrupt you. We have got a witness who we think was on the scene. Let's listen.

TOM, WITNESS INSIDE THE TERMINAL WHERE THE TRAIN CRASHED: -- you know, it's just this is something that happened.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Again, this is Tom. He was inside the terminal when this --

COSTELLO: All right. I'm so sorry we got to that a little late. But he was yet another witness to this terrible crash, this transit train that crashed into a platform at the Hoboken, New Jersey station. We understand 100 people have been hurt. There has been at least one death. It was pretty scary on board that train because as that train came barreling into the station and ran into a wall, the roof collapsed on top of the first two train cars. The lights went out inside the train. The passengers, as one witness described it, felt like bowling pins. Everybody was on the floor. When they managed to get up they noticed some of their fellow passengers were injured, some of them severely. They saw blood on some passengers. Some passengers had head injuries. One witness just told me the doors of the train did not open. They actually had to knock out the emergency window and climb out of the window on to the platform and when they got on to the platform, this is what they saw. They saw this damaged car.