Investigation underway into latest New York train derailment

World
Europe

A terrifying start to morning rush hour in New York City: a commuter train slammed into an end-of-the-line barricade and derailed at its Brooklyn terminal, with more than 100 hurt.

It was a bumpy start to 2017 for an estimated 600 New York-bound commuters, arriving at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal Wednesday.

Long Island Railroad workers talk outside the platform where a train derailed at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York, the United States, Jan. 4, 2017. /Xinhua photo

Their Long Island Railroad train hit the barrier at the end of the line causing multiple injuries, but none life threatening, according to New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo.

An investigation is underway into why the train failed to pull in safely, with the incident the latest in a series of commuter train failures in America’s largest city.

At the end of last September, a New Jersey Transit train ploughed into buffers at Hoboken station. A woman was killed by falling debris.

Preliminary report findings suggest the driver was suffering from a sleeping disorder, and somehow lost consciousness as he approached the station.

A police officer stands guard outside the platform where a train derailed at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York, the United States, Jan. 4, 2017. /Xinhua Photo‍

In December 2013, a Metro North Railroad train rounded a bend too quickly and spun off the tracks – killing four people – the driver said he’d gone into the curve in a “daze.”

In another incident in May 2015 in Philadelphia, an Amtrak train took a bend at twice the legal speed limit and derailed killing eight passengers, and injuring nearly 200 others. The official report says the driver was likely distracted.

There is equipment available to slow down trains when drivers lose attention, but it’s not available on all lines, usually because of a lack of funding or contract disputes.

Back in Brooklyn, the clean-up goes on and the injured know with mostly bumps and bruises, they got away lightly.

(Written by CGTN America’s John Terrett)

11001km