Official: Dozens of NJ Transit safety violations uncovered months before Hoboken crash

ByCeFaan Kim WABC logo

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Dozens of NJ Transit safety violations uncovered before Hoboken crash

CeFaan Kim has the latest details from Hoboken.

HOBOKEN, NJ -- The engineer in the [url HREF="http://abc13.com/news/at-least-1-dead-multiple-critical-injuries-in-train-accident/1531831/" TARGET="" REL=""]deadly New Jersey Transit crash[/url] left his home in Morris Plains on Saturday morning and returned several hours later. [url HREF="http://7ny.tv/2dePWzK" TARGET="" REL=""]48-year-old Thomas Gallagher[/url]was being interviewed by the NTSB for the first time since the crash that killed a woman and injured more than a hundred others.[br /][br /]Workers in Hoboken are continuing the cleanup at the train station. Most of the debris is now cleared out, but the roof is still damaged.[br /][Ads /][br /]The NTSB said Saturday that there were no signal problems at the station at the time of the crash. However, a federal official said that the Federal Railroad Administration had investigated New Jersey Transit, and found dozens of safety violations during an audit in June.[br /][br /]RELATED: [url HREF="http://abc13.com/news/powerful-photos-videos-show-aftermath-of-hoboken-train-crash/1532068/" TARGET="" REL=""]Powerful photos, videos show aftermath of Hoboken train crash [/url][br /][br /]Investigators are still unable to access the event data recorder connected to a forward-facing camera on the train, because that train is still stuck in that station, due to significant structural and environmental issues.[br /][br /]An event recorder recovered Friday is now at the manufacturer's facility in Kentucky as the NTSB supervises the attempted download of information.[br /][Ads /][br /][img SRC="[br /]http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/content/wabc/images/cms/100116-hobokeneventrecorder.jpg" ALIGN="" /][br /][br /]Officials say that New Jersey Transit was fined as a result of that audit. Eyewitness News reached out to that agency but did not hear back.[br /][br /]It is not known what the engineer told NTSB - the NTSB says it will not be sharing that information until the interview is fully completed.