New Jersey

1 Recorder Was Not Functioning During NJ Train Crash: NTSB

A spokeswoman said conditions are still too dangerous to risk getting to the second recorder

One of the two on-board event data recorders from the train that crashed into a Hoboken, New Jersey, train station last week was not functioning during that trip, a National Transportation Safety Board official said Sunday. The crash killed one person, Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, who was standing on the platform when the train hit.

Investigators aren't sure why the recorder wasn't working during that trip, said NTSB vice chairwoman Bella Dinh-Zarr, though she noted that the device was manufactured in 1995, making it older than the other on-board recorder. That recorder, which is in the lead car, has still not been recovered from the wreckage. Dinh-Zarr said conditions are still too dangerous to risk getting all the way to the lead car.

Aside from looking to the data event recorders, investigators also have taken more than 100 aerial drone photos, taken a 3-D laser scan of the train, interviewed injured passengers and spoken with the train's conductor and its engineer.

The engineer says he remembers going 10 mph when he hit the station. Officials can't confirm the speed at which the train was moving until they obtain the recorder from the lead car, which was made more recently than the other. They say they are hopeful that the second recorder was working.

As they continue to investigate the crash site, NTSB officials say they will provide updates. And for those local to the area, information about Monday's commute will be released late Sunday.

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