stop? people watching the train coming in heard the impact, watched it happen, they knew something was wrong. >> more than 100 injuries, our coverage of this news story will continue throughout the morning into the afternoon and we will try to figure it out. i am bill hemmer and coverage continues. >> we begin with a fox news alert, the latest on the crash of the commuter train in hoboken, new jersey, welcome to "happening now" on this thursday, continuing coverage into the disaster in that state. i'm john scott. neil: 7 i am in for jenna lee. one person confirmed dead, 100 injured, many critical, according to emergency response after the crowded new jersey transit train derailed and plowed through the hoboken station just west of manhattan in the middle of the morning

rush-hour. john: let's get to rick leventhal who is first on the scene. >> reporter: i'm told by law enforcement, the engineer and conductor of the train survived the crash, and emergency services extricating one of those train workers from the front car along with someone else who had to be pulled out of the mangled wreck of the first car and taken to an area hospital with well over 100 other people who suffered in many cases critical injuries because of this crash at the busy hoboken train terminal. this is new jersey transit train 1614 that left spring valley new york at 7:23, was arriving on track 5 and according to witnesses was traveling faster than it should have been, jumped over a bumper when it crashed into the hudson terminal at 8:405 am, the federal railroad

administration dispatched investigators to for what caused this crash, the national transportation safety board, in mass transit where there are fatalities and there is at least one fatality as a result. i have a source inside who said fatalities are still down there, haven't been able to extra great yet, and the section of roofing collapse, and a lot of panic on the train, many people, 250 people estimated to be on the train when it pulled into the station or reward into the station and that is how people go to get on the train and get to another train that would take them from hoboken to new jersey on the other side of the hudson river into midtown manhattan where they are headed did it to work. the commuter train before 9 am,

people waiting to get on another train and get into the city and that is when his train came barreling into the station, passed over a bumper into a wall and cost so many devastating injuries, well over 100, port authority police and emergency services and fire department extricating two people from the front car which was badly mangled, some people breaking through windows to try to get out of that train, others having to crawl out of the train bleeding. it was described as dark when the accident happened, people screaming and panicking as you might imagine but many of them appear to be alive at this hour because of the severity this crash. >> the largest metropolis, millions of people, this kind of incident hits home for so many new yorkers who ride long island railroad, metro-north railroad or new jersey transit as well as the subway systems.

there were early reports some of the crew members on this train may have been victims here. do we know anything about that? >> we never reported that on this end and the engineer and conductor are okay, they survived this crash, the engineer and conducted survived the crash and many were badly hurt in the engineer may be one of them, extricated and transported to a nearby hospital because he was caught in the front car which was so badly damaged and law enforcement out here, first responders and rescue workers, hundreds of them on the same terminal, one of the busiest in the nation, 15,000 people pass through this terminal every single weekday and it is the busiest public transportation system in america so this is a busy terminal. and the busiest transportation

system in the country suffering a horrific accident. >> john: and obviously the investigation yet to commence. >> just getting started. just getting started and my sources says that there's at this point no known cause beyond the train traveling too fast. they still don't know why it was going to fast. john: a lot of questions. thank you so much. >> now thomas, former nyd commissioner, try to get more information. thank you so much for joining us, first of all. you've been taking a look at live pictures as we all have. we have been hearing stories about how fast this train was going. at least one witness there who was on the train itself said that he could feel that the train had gone off of the tracks before impact. does that tell you anything as to what you think occurred here?

>> well, you still don't have the answer because you haven't been able to examine the equipment or get testimony, i guess, from the conductor and engineer. those are the key areas that they will find out pretty quickly. at least the early part of the investigation. right now you have to guess, you know. john: i just wonder about the procedure that is the rescue crews are trying to follow in situations like this. you know, most of the train tracks are electrified with 12-volts or something like that. you can't just leap into one of these trains that has crashed without taking proper precautions. this must be incredibly stressful for rescuers. >> well, it is, even though there's protocol, the people involved with the power supply will shut it down and that's why you have no lights, you need emergency lighting and more difficult to see but at least you're hoping that all of that

electric is gone and that's what the -- the primary thing that they've got to do to protect themselves and evacuating people out of there. it's not an easy job because normal ways because everything is bent. it looks like the die hard movies, everybody is wondering when is it going to stop and goes to the wall, phenomenal. >> one of the train workers on the scene when this first happened, before emergency responders could arrive, said the people on the train were trying to actually breakthrough the windows to get out and they were trying to hold them there so that they would not get out of the train until they, in fact, that the electricity had been cut because of that possibility. another question i wanted to ask you in terms of those first responders, getting into where this crash has occurred because that worker said that the depo

at this point is not technically sound because the whole roof was ripped apart. >> well, you know, those are tough decision that is the chiefs and the emergency service people make on the scene. is it safe enough to get our people in there to get these people out? and you look at the risk and reward. i would imagine they took chances that they would not normally take because they knew of the possibility of these people really needing help, wanting to keep some in the cars where it was safer than being out of the car and wanting to get people out of the cars as quickly as possible. somebody is crushed and can't breath, you really need to help them as quickly as possible and that's when our guys take the risks that they take. >> and we understand about two people, at least two people, i'm sure more were extracated from the first car. they both survived crash. no doubt if they're able, they

will be speak to go them as soon as possible. >> well, i would imagine they grabbed those folks right away. that's the responsibility of the board authority, whoever is in charge of that. they will try to grab those people because they have a lot of questions to answer on whether or not it was their own fault that they did something or under the influence or something or an accident that they counterprevent. so it's really unfair at this point to make any assumptions. john: we had reports in the early going that passengers or bystanders had on extracated. when you're dealing something the sides of electrified train car, these are bigger than school buses for those who are ununfamiliar with them, as a rescuer how do you know that you have everybody out?

will they have to get heavy-duty inflatable bags, means to pick up off the tracks to make sure nobody is in there? >> there's a group of 15, you know, other cities that are sending people, mutual aid. as each unit comes in, there's a protocol for reporting to the person in charge and he's breaking it all down into sequence. the first car, of course, is primary, then in the second car and somebody sending underneath the first car and underneath the wall that's been hit. they have a plan that's set up, if it's not totally, you know, written in -- in hard language, they know what they have to do in that situation and they just get it done as quickly as possible. with the amount of people that they have because you're not going to have everybody in need in the first ten minutes. john: i know that all of the

train stations have effectively iers, a huge steel block just before the train line terminates that is supposed to stop, i supposed, slow-moving trains but clearly in this situation that piece of equipment was overwhelmed by the speed and the mass of what was coming at it. >> well, it's like in a parking garage, there's something there to stop the car from rolling but not going to stop the car if it's doing 60 miles an hour. the safety factor is designed for speed and not for something coming up at top speed. we don't know the speed yet. >> in fact, i believe that it's actually at this stop in hoboken, do i know that on september 29th, 2016 this has happened but there was a similar crash that happened in may of 2011, crash in hoboken injuring 30 people. it went straight barriers that

john was talking about. >> it went -- like this did or the barrier just broke and some people were injured? >> not at this high rate of speed. >> yeah, that's the difference. the barriers are designed to stop a normal problem where the braking, a conductor or engineer mandating to stop at this point. this is the point by 20 feet that's one thing. if it's 30 feet, t another thing. 200 feet, it depends on his speed and how much delay there was when he started putting brakes on. >> what will they need to look for in order to determine if, in fact, that did happen, that he did try to brake and perhaps the brakes weren't working? there are a couple of possibilities here in terms of coming at such high rate of speed. is there that could have happened to conductors themselves or something that could have happened to the

brakes? >> well, i'm an operation's guy. you have to talk to engineer and transportation board will have all experts coming in pulling everything apart. this investigation will go on a long time before you see anything really definitive. they will give you probably later today, they will give you what they think happened but there's an awful lot of testing that has to be done the equipment before they assume it was human error. john: former commissioner of the fire department of city of new york, commissioner, thank you very much for sharing your expertise. >> you're welcome. john: john hyatt is a railroad investigator and joins us on the phone. >> job one is responding to the injured and my thoughts and prayers with all those. this is a horrific accident and i know that there are several options and boil down to philadelphia amtrak wreck at first where they're going to start eliminating things, but obviously there was a problem

that this train was exceeding the speed, there were some kind of a problem at the controls of the train, whether or not it was machine call or whether, again, we had a situation of awareness problem, there are a lot of options. any of them would be -- it's too early to predict any of those. john: you reference the terrible amtrak crash in philadelphia at a speed far greater than supposed to be going. there was a lot of discussion in the days and weeks after the crash about mechanisms that can automatically reduce a train's speed in that kind of circumstance. would a new jersey transit train have those mechanisms, and if not, why not? >> well, train control is one of the things that's referred to, one of the mechanisms. and we are talking about the fifth busiest transportation

terminal in the united states as far as rail transit. if they don't have it there, then i don't understand. it's just like in philadelphia, they had several surrounding areas but they didn't have it in that exact section of track, which they do now. that gets to the point. this has to happen before this equipment gets instituted in different places. this train control and models of it have been around for 50 years. the only question has been the expense and, again, i guess if you're doing the counting, it must be less of an expense to pay for a situation every now and then as opposed to equipping the trains with the proper equipment and doing the maintenance on it and that's one of the biggest drawbacks, they don't want to pay for equipment and maintenance it takes to keep it up. john: i want to read a statement from new jersey transit. at approximately 8:45 a.m.

departure from spring valley operate to go hoboken, struck and multiple critical injuries. not a lot there that we didn't already know. i am reminded, john, of a crash on metro north that took place while it was really thanksgiving weekend, the first day of december, a couple of years back when a sleep deprived engineer it was later determined that had undiagnosed severe case of sleep apnea and was doing something like 75 miles an hour and the train went off the tracks and four people were killed. it's my recollection that the engineer was not criminally charged because of the medical condition, but is that going to be the first kind of human

factor that investigators will look at in this particular circumstance? >> it certainly will be. you have to understand the industry itself, the rail industry itself is trying to run with as many less people as possible and so these guys rotate on a real regular basis and when you get caught up in that trap, it certainly is easy to get deprived of the proper rest that they need. i don't know that that's the case here. i'm just saying and running passenger trains, you have to be on top of the train all of the time and to not have a safety concern, i don't know if there was or not, but did not work. i can't imagine what those poor people went through. this is our infrastructure and this is an indication of some of the things that it's the busiest terminal in the country, one of, isn't safe along these lines, then, what about the rest of

them? what about the rest of our industry? i am concerned about that. >> and you would think that they would have taken a closer look here at this specific terminal because this is what information mentioning earlier, there was an actual crash here five years ago at the same terminal, the same station in hoboken, that past train left dozens injuries. at the time authorities had said that the brakes were not hit hard enough as it was pulling into the station. it hit and clydeed clydeed withp e there that's at the end to have rail line that we were talking about but then it was determined after that that it was mechanical failure. unfortunately they have to do it too often. i'm sure that the experts will get to the bottom of this, but in the meantime i caution everybody not to point fingers and wait until you get some of the actual response from the ntsb. these are very tough questions and you don't want to be

second-guessing anybody. this engineer may have been doing something wrong or he may have been put in a position where he couldn't have responded differently. same with the crew. i have heard different reports of train crew and people on board were extremely professional and responsive. i want to say that the people on board sounds like they responded and also people at the terminal. that's a great thing about this country, people run towards it and not away from it. john: john, we appreciate your insights. once again looking at the after math of morning collision, derailment, whatever you want to call it, a train packed with commuters smashed into the station and at least one person has been killed. joining us now on the phone the governor of the state of new jersey, chris christie,

governor, what is your primary job today? >> well, john, first off to ensure that those people who were injured have been taken quickly to local hospitals and get the care they need. we have done that and great assistance from medical center and hospital in hoboken and next to coordinate investigation into the accident and our state attorney general is taking the lead on this along with the ntsb and the federal railway administration and they've already been in contact and are coordinating those efforts. and third is to deal with how folks will be commuting home this afternoon. it's currently being evaluated by engineers, we are looking at whether that station will be used or if not what are the alternatives who have to get to hoboken this afternoon to commutes.

all the rail services at times seem to be fine and unaffected but we are examining all of that, coordinating that, engineers from port authorities, new jersey and new york and new jersey transit. lastly i've been in contact with governor cuomo. a lot of passengers are from new york state. we will be working together the rest of the day to make sure that the response is coordinated not only to victims and families but also to the folks that will need to be commuting home on both sides of the river this afternoon. john: i'm not sure if you heard it we were speaking to john, railroad investigator, he said infrastructure is a real problem and there ought to be more money spent on safety devices on trains like this. you're the top guy in new jersey, state budgets are always tight, how do you prioritize?

does more must be need to be spent on failed devices or train lines? >> listen, we can't jump to any conclusions of the cause yet of this accident and so i think it would be irresponsible for me to comment on it. what i will say is that we spend the money that we need to spend to make sure rail passengers each and every have a commute that is first and foremost safe but we are going to take a hard look at what happened in this accident and then make determinations from a policy perspective after we get the cause of the accident. >> governor christy, this is heather childress. many people in critical condition. is there any of hotline to get in touch with them?

>> there's only been two hospitals where the victims have been taken, as i said earlier jersey city medical center and medical hospital in hoboken. contact hospitals directly about loved ones. it's the most efficient way to go. if you're a family member they will give you that information. and so if you call, those are the two facilities that ems has removed any victims. you're right, there's one confirmed fatality and we are hoping that that's all that there will be. all the victims are being cared for in one of the two hospitals at this time. john: i know you get the first reports of first responders, have there been any issues reported so far with the ability of rescue crews to get to those people who were trapped and to get to those on the platform? >> no, the great news is, john, transit police report that ems

reports -- came to the scene immediately and other first responders from the local area, they worked seamestly. everyone we believe that was in the train has been removed. we don't know anybody that has been trapped and those people were triage at the site and sent to one of the two hospitals i mentioned earlier. i think at least from what we know at this point, this was a seemless performance at the scene and i'm certain that that will contribute to result to all of those who were victims. >> back in 2011 a train crashed into the bumpers at the train station about 34 orb so injured in that particular case, were there any extra precaution that is you know of put in place as a result of that?

>> you know, heather, i don't think it was related. seems to be very different type of occurrences. let's wait for the fra and state attorney general's office before we draw any conclusions or connections to previous incidents. right now it does not seem to be something that's a consistent issue or problem but we are going to take a look at what the investigation tells us and not jump to any conclusions prematurely. john: there's one fatality, a woman, we understand, but the put the hopeful spin on a terrible situation, from the sounds of what you're telling us because most of badly wounded are already in hospitals, we might hope, maybe even expect that the death toll will not climb significantly. >> of course, john, we pray that it doesn't. we are hopeful that it won't but they're now in the hands of the medical professionals in the hospitals and we feel that they

are in good hands. that's what we can hope for and pray for for victims but the good news is that they were transported as quickly as possible to get to medical care and attention that they needed and i'm very proud of the law enforcement first responders who got there quickly and as your previous guest said ran to the problem and helped people very, very quickly and the fact that this accident is already seen all folks evacuated and those who needed medical help are sent to the hospital. john: we appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you, john, thank you, heather, very much. john: status on those injured. let's take a listen. >> the majority of those patients are going to be discharged. right now we are dealing with about 11 patients in the emergency department. we also -- i have with me

dr. ken who is our chief medical officer who is going to give you a sense of what's going on in the emergency department. dr., gray. >> as jill said, as soon as the call came into the emergency trauma, all hands on deck, we have 24/7 trauma surgeons and they were here. we brought in additional trauma surgeons as well. in the trauma we have neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons. there are three serious patients. they have been treating by our trauma surgeons as we speak. there are a handful other patients evaluated for injuries in the emergency room. approximately 40 patients are being treated as well for walking-types of engineers and they're being evaluated as well. all hands on deck with all our

physicians, all our surgeons, specialty surgeons, our specialty physicians as well as critical care nurses and we are well -- planned well and are very much in gear to handle this type of emergency. it's 40 walk-in and 9 to 11 in the emergency, yes. i would rather not describe until i have a better idea of what's going on. they are you should constant care by trauma surgeons. [inaudible] >> we have a triage center there. i don't know whether it came from the train or from the terminals. most came from the train. >> when do you expect the first discharge, soon or later tonight? >> as far as the walking people, hopefully in the next hour to two hoursment i will know better when i go back inside and speak.

some of them are critical and some are serious. none of them at this point are life-threatening. they are critical and stable and carefully monitored and treated by our surgeon. >> are you expecting more patients from that scene? >> i think we have received the last of our patients. [inaudible] >> we hand all all types of traumas here. we are a level-two trauma center. we were the trauma for 9/11 and hudson. >> the walking wounded that we all saw them come in, how did they get here? >> by bus. transit bus. [inaudible] >> metal or some sort -- >> they are being evaluated. i can't answer that.

they're being evaluated right now. [inaudible] >> i have no answer to that. when i have an answer, i will be glad to let you know. >> you said three are in serious condition. none are life threatening. >> none at this point are life threatening. >> how many hospital -- [inaudible] >> the entire staff is on complete alert. we have three trauma surgeons on board, we've got orthopedic, vascular surgeons, facial trauma surgeons, we have a depth in staffing. >> but at the scene -- >> at the scene we sent ems team and they are very good in evaluating patients and they transported the critical care patients immediately.

orthopedic and internal injuries. the three. >> and in terms of -- [inaudible] >> so one of the things about jersey city medical center that's unique to our hospital, there are several hospitals in the state that are like that. we are the medical services provider, we provide balance service both advance and basic life support so the coordination from the trauma center is seamless, when they're on site, our hospital is notified and we drill for these types of events. we have a high-level coordination. i also want to thank all of the first responders and the police department and everybody else who cooperated with us to make sure patients got here as soon as possible so we can treat them for trauma it's all about the golden hour, getting them to trauma center within the first hour and that's what saves life. through that coordinated effort

ems, first responders, we are fortunate the patients got here quickly and able to trait them and expect good outcomes for each of the patients. >> hotline. >> yes, we have a hotline for family members, if they would like to call. (201)915-2691. it is staffed by our ems department, you can find out information if people are concerned of family members that might be here. they can call that number. we do ask to limited to family members, we don't want to overwhelm that line from other people. but if family members are looking for information, (201)915-2691. >> so the 40 that walked in in addition to 3 in serious condition. so total of 51 patients? >> that's correct. that's the count that we believe we have right now. >> when did the first patient arrive?

>> at 9:15 in the morning. [inaudible] >> so we are the local ambulance provider. they are employee employees of medical center. we coordinate basic and advanced life support. we are responsible for responding but also there's other first responders, there's the fire department, certainly the police are there responding and helping out on the scene but that coordinated effort makes a big difference. [inaudible] >> we are the trauma center, right? so the majority of patients who are trauma victims and there's specific criteria for that will actually come here. 21 in-house trauma surgeons. i don't know that at this point. [inaudible] >> so the three are a little more critical might be going to

the operating room. they might be going to the intensive care unit. the others we are looking to see whether or not they are going to be admitted. so it's really -- [inaudible] >> i can't say critical because i don't know their status quite frankly. once we do know their status we will absolutely let you know. we are evaluating them now, so as soon as we -- as soon as we know that, we will be the first ones to let you know. >> do you know about the three confirmed deaths? >> i don't. >> so in the emergency department and trauma center, there are three patient that is we know are more serious, they are actually being treated now. one is in the operating room and one in intensive care unit and i'm not sure where the third patient is at this point. the other eight are being evaluated and see whether they need to be admitted. 40 patients who were in the cafeteria earn right now being triaged, we anticipate most of them will be treated and released. we have freed up beds, we have discharged patients to partners in the area, like nursing homes

so we have additional beds available for patients in the hospital and so we anticipate that there's plenty of space for them in the event that they need to be admitted. >> some patients to nursing home? >> some patients were discharged from the hospital to free up space for -- for these patients in the event that they were here. they are triaging patients. they are looking at what types of injuries they have. they walked in so they're not serious. they are minor injuries but we want to make sure we are treating them if they have a head injury, for example, a ct scan. we will make sure they get that before they leave. most of them look like they're minor injuries and probably treated an released. >> what kinds of injuries? >> lacerations, i think somebody got hit on the face, lumps and bumps. those types of things. >> have you ever had to use the cafeteria earn? >> if you remember sully went down in the hudson, remember

that? we had the same drill, right. fortunately at that time we gave more chicken soup than medical care. that's a good drill and a good way to train for this. >> how often do you drill for this? >> we probably do it at least every quarter. there's a coordinated effort throughout what we do here and, of course, with all the other related agencies, so -- okay, we will be back again, thank you all for being here. [inaudible] >> yeah, so at 12:30 we will be back. john: we are an hour away from the next update from the new jersey city medical center but overall given the situation here this is very good news. it sounds and the numbers are a little fluid but it sounds like they have 51 patients who have arrived there. three of them are in serious to critical condition but it is not expected that any of those three has life-threatening injuries.

they have another eight who are more severely banged up, who have been treated in the emergency room and there are about 40 who have suffered some form of trauma but are generally considered okay. they're referring to them as the walk-in wounded. now, if you look at that box on the right side of your screen, this all took place less than a mile from manhattan. hoboken sits just on the banks of the hudson river right across from manhattan and there is a look at the train terminal. the hudson river there, half a mile wide or maybe a little bit more than that. so this all took place at one of the nation's busiest train stations where passengers can disembark and jump on another train to go manhattan and take -- go to few other places. these were morning commuters, probably most of them heading to manhattan for the densely populated buro and bam, their

train slams at a very high rate of speed into a concrete platform. so the terrible news is that there has been one death, a woman, we understand, the very good news is that it isn't worst than it is. roughly 51 people taken to a local trauma center and it sure could have been a whole lot worse given the way the train car was ripped apart when it collided with the wall. >> if you look at initial pictures from the inside the station, where basically the terminal served as the brakes. manny álvarez is senior managing editor and joins us now with more information. dr. manny, i know you were listening in. really amazing. three people with the most serious injuries at this point and described as being orthopedic injuries and internal injuries. >> right, this is very good

news, at least for now. we still don't have any data. this is jersey city medical center. there are other two hospitals one in hoboken proper, we don't know if there's been any admissions to that hospital. we also have medical center, a couple of miles away on the other side of hoboken. once all the data comes in, you know, we will have a better picture of the number of injuries, but at least seeing at least just keeping three critical patients just for now that are requiring perhaps surgical intervention and most of the injuries orthopedic in nature, i expected a lot of broken bones because of physical impact specially first three to four cars of the train. that's the kind of injury that you were going to get. it's a very good statistics for now. >> we also heard him talking

about this golden hour. why is that significant? >> well, one of the things that we practiced, you know, the natural way of life now for hospitals specially trauma centers is to practice this two or three times a year. you know, we live in a world after 9/11 where anything can happen. same attitudes taken by police departments, hospitals take. you have different levels of triaging. the emt when they get to a scene like this, they begin to triage the patient and see who needs immediate removal and those folks get transported because time is of the essence. all injuries whether they're broken bones or crushing injuries most of the problems that occur is that you lose a lot of blood, you lose externally or internally but at the end of the day you get cardiovascular collapse. if you don't do that in a timely fashion, 15, 20 minutes at best, you're going to lose patients. so the triaging is done at the

field followed by then deciding what hospitals they need to go, minor injuries may go to let's say level-one type of medical center that doesn't have trauma surgeons, the more significant go to level three where trauma surgeons are and this is how we play the game. but all hands on deck at all hospitals at all levels from the balance drivers to the emt's to everybody gets immediately activated and i have to tell you, this accident to me, at least i was reported at 8:30, 8:31 this morning within five minutes i had information that most of the hospitals that were serving hoboken went into a state of emergency and activated their plan of trauma. john: for our viewers who live in area where this type of commute asking not the norm, you have to imagine what it would be like if you took your morning

drive to get a cup of coffee and the roof collapsed on the grocery store or the deli where you're getting coffee. this is the most normal kind of morning in manhattan and then all of a sudden this takes place at a train station. dr. manny, i'm sure you have seen the video of what that front car looked like. this is a car that i'm going to guess weighs 15-20 tons something like that and it is torn apart like a sardine can. are you surprise that had the -- surprised and the one fatality is not far worse? >> i expected many more. i heard earlyorning before it was officially released that there was one fatality that was reported. i got that from the police department in hoboken but i

expected many more because i knew that crushing injuries, those being trapped in metal or in concrete, you know, i've been to that train stations a hundred times. it's a physical station with a lot of cement, steel everywhere. they don't have any cushions. you see it's hard plastic, a lot of metal so if you're thrown against, you know, almost like hitting a tree, you go forward, you go backwards, you hit yourself, you know, you break things and i'm amazed at this is so far at least reports seem to have a more -- you know, optimistic that we are not going to see a lot of fatality. >> manny álvarez, thank you for joining us. thank you. >> thank you. john: roughly 51 people hurt in

varying degrees, roughly only three serious to critical injuries, no more life-threatening injuries as far as we know and one fatality. so you can imagine that the other people who were on board this train are thanking god, thanking their lucky stars that things weren't worse. listen. >> i just saw basically the train had gone through the terminal and hit the barricade and part of the terminal roof had collapse and, you know, there was people running all over and injured folks trying to get out of the way and it was chaotic scene. john: very traumatic morning in hoboken, across the river from lower manhattan. chris, it's my understanding that some of the safety precautions that might be common in other parts of the world aren't installed yet on u.s. trains, is that the case? >> yes, hello, john. nice to speak to you.

it's quite common that what you call in america positive train control has been a bit slow to be rolled out as regards to safety aspects. here in england every terminal station just like hoboken we have a train protection and warning system which is a series of grids that monitor the train speed and if the train is over the approach speed or correct approach speed the brakes are automatically applied. that's not to say that the train would not hit but it would not hit with the same level of impact that we are seeing on the pictures from hoboken. john: obviously these things are a matter of expense, they became an issue in the amtrak crash just outside of philadelphia a couple of years back. there was a lot of discussion about positive train control and why that hadn't been installed. is it in some way easier to do in a smaller nation like

britain? >> it may well be. we have a series of bad accidents in the late 1990's and as a result of those including some -- accidents with several fatalities the system was designed to install major junctions and approach the stations to actually eliminate to the best possibility, the possibilities of this happening. john: it's my understanding that, you know, you can -- because gps positioning has improved dramatically over the last decade, there are systems available or could be available using gps that would keep train speeds restricted in places like this that would not require some of the expense of the older systems. can you comment on that? >> that is absolutely correct, john. in england at the moment we are looking to implement a system called the european train control system which works through a combination of gsm

radio signals, gps positioning. what it will do is allow train operators to run great number of trains through a particular busy area, but each of these train speeds is monitored an controlled by gps and tells the driver what the maximum speed he can do is and if he exceeds the system shuts the train down. john: the kind of system that the u.s. investigators will be taking a look at in the wake -- >> possibly, it's a very complicated system. in the uk we have been working for for five, maybe six years and we still only got a couple of lines which are being tested for it. we are shortly sometime next year, i believe, to actually implement it to one line through central london where we want to

run 24 trains in an hour through a narrow corridor. john: you have sympathy for or understanding of the issues that face train operators in this country? >> absolutely. i think the important thing is obviously for the investigators to find out, you know, why the train approached the terminal at the speed it was and why there weren't devices to slow it down. i know people have been suggesting that the conductor at the rear of the train, what his role may have been, he maybe wasn't in the position to actually do anything. something for the investigators will who obviously do job diligently. john: obviously it is too early to know what caused this terrible crash. the investigation just beginning. chris, deputy editor of rail way magazine. chris, we appreciate your insights. >> crash happening at 8:45 this morning in hoboken, train 614,

at this point one confirmed death but as we have been telling you, 100 others injured in this crash. we have some more witnesses who were on that train, listen. >> i was on my phone but other passengers said that, yeah, he was going faster than normal. >> how did you get out of the train? >> climb out the window. >> was it already open? >> no we kicked it out. people were trying to stampede out but everybody calmed down and we kicked it out. >> did you member anybody get out of the train? >> we try today clear the way for people that were bleeding more to get out first. we kind of made everybody like step out of the way. some people wanted bathroom to people get off and get looked at. >> we heard the conductor from the first -- >> a rail safety consultant and former ntsb crash investigator, he joins us now on the phone. thank you for joining us.

so you have been listening to what we have been listening to, you have been watching pictures as they continue to come in. the crash was horrific. witnesses on the scene calling it horrendous people were alive but serious injuries. the second half of the first car completely destroyed. what is your take on what happened here? >> well, at this point there's so many factors that could be influencing this that i would probably say human performance or lack of human performance was probably contributing or cause and effect the accident. >> what leads you to believe, lack of human performance, is that what you said? >> yeah, i think this is probably on behalf of the engineer who ironically is going to be right there in front of the train, he's going to be the first person to hit anything. the bumper post and into the

building. >> i was going to ask you where he was. i thought i heard that he would have been in the first car and our last guest mentioning of him being in the last car. he would have been in the first car along with the conductor? >> well, a conductor could have been anywhere in the train. the engineer would have been right there at the very first car looking out of the window, looking at the front-end of the train. were we were told that they were extradited. some of the other witness accounted that they could feel that the train had flown off the tracks prior to the impact and that before that happened they expected that there was no problem at all. not only a fast speed but it seems from some of these witness accounts that there was no attempt to slow down at all. >> well, the speed is going to be dye keptive. i'm estimating at speed of less

than 10 miles an hour. but the train weighs so much and so much mass it's going to carry it into the station even at 10 miles an hour or less. john: it's my understanding that about 30% of transit trains nationwide are equipped with that positive train control system that allows, well, that attempts to prevent incidents like this by -- by mechanically or electronically knowing where the train is and how fast it should be going. it's my understanding there are no energy transit trains that have the system. there was a deadline last year but it was extended to 2018 for the train to be so equipped. can you tell us about the history there? >> well, train control as a priority to being installed in

passenger train, first and then freight trains, there's various forms of positive train control and actually steps in it. new jersey transit has a cab segment system that regulates the train speed according to signals. at that point coming into a yard or terminal like that if it's under 15 miles an hour basically speaking there's not going to be -- within the speed, it's not going to take effect and give them a penalty brake application or there should have been some kind of device automatically train stop or some kind of device coming into the very end of the terminal that if the train hasn't come up under a certain speed that it would have stopped or certainly slowed it more. john: from what you told us earlier, though, you suggest that this may have been doing 10 miles an hour or so when it hit the platform, when it

recovery ran the bumper and hit the platform. that would be a speed lower than that at which this positive train control would normally kick in? >> well, for this type of system -- this train control system. it's not positive train control. it may go under other names. it's a form of positive train control. correct, it wouldn't have probably stopped at less than 10 miles an hour. >> is that the same thing when we hear someone speak of an alerter. are we talking about the same thing? >> no, alerter is in the cab and basically alerter is going to come onto make sure the engineer is alert. if he's making some kind of manipulations either touching, there's various types of it, if he touches the control or makes control adjustments, it resets itself and the slower the train goes, the longer the intervale

is between it's sensing something taking place. if he was going very slow, so to speak, under 10 or 15 miles an hour, the interval when that 30 seconds or a minute or something of that nature. >> so would this train have that? >> i'm sorry? >> would this train have had that? >> i don't know. i don't know. it may have at one point. i don't know. some trains have gone to different forms of positive train controls and eliminated them. john: do you start looking at human factors first. you know, recent incidents in the new york metropolitan area have involved fatigue or human error in cases somewhat similar to this? is that where you start looking first? >> well, you actually start looking at all of the factors.

that may not be the cause or contributing factor. but the safety board will come in and look at the track and the signal systems and the mechanical and brakes including human performance. i understand the engineer was unresponsive when they found him. john: we have become familiar obviously with the black boxes that aircraft carry and those are use today help determine what happened in aircraft incidents, train has some very similar systems, do they not? >> yes, that's going to tell investigators a lot. it records train speed, train power, cab signals, if they have them and a variety of other -- other factors that go into train operation. >> relative to the safety of traveling by other means, this

particular system, four lines, john was speaking earlier about the massive number of people that use these every single day, 263,000 people travel this way every single day. so as we are looking at these pictures, how safe is it? this is unusual or not? >> well, it's certainly unusual and it's really safe. you haven't heard of this kind of incident happening for a long time. the system is very safe. you know, this is -- but still it's like all system, all of transportation systems, dependent to a large extent on human performance. >> we heard very early as this was developing that they were saying that do not believe this was terror related. is there anything that could have been there on the scene right away that would have told them that information?

>> well, there might have been, but there are many other -- other areas that i would suspect that terrorists wanting to attempt something, he would do it some where else. >> thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it as we continue to watch the live pictures as they come in and the stories developing, thank you. >> thank you. john: so it was the most ordinary of thursday morning for commuters out of spring valley, new york to hoboken, as they were pull into the station or so they thought, the train did not deaccelerate and slammed into a concrete platform. one person is dead. >> as it was coming into the station it felt like the car went off the track and the

impact happened. it sounded like an explosion. everybody fell. the car -- the fourth car was diagonal after the crash and then luckily the doors opened so we were able to get out but the fourth car it was sideways almost and we got out and, you know, crowe bar fell. >> what were your injuries? >> i was very fortunate. i just injured my foot, nothing -- nothing that matters today. >> what about other people you saw? >> the people in the fourth car -- john: so it is astounding when you look at the condition of that car and that the number of injuries and the kinds of injuries are not more significant than they are. we got the report from the emergency city center which is the main trauma center where people were taken. 40 of them really just banged up and about 11 suffering more serious injuries but none thought to be life-threatening. in some ways a miracle.

>> the height of morning rush hour as well. john: absolutely. daily event for millions of people in new york metro area jumping on the train commute to go work. today is a very different day. live coverages continues now with shepherd smith. >> the tracks passenger are extracated. some of them critically, at least one person killed as the train plowed through the station, dozens of people left under the rubble. i want to show you where this was. it was the valley line. this is manhattan right here. new jersey just across the hudson river, right up here spring valley is the town where this started. a commuter town. this is new york. the west side of the river. mostly new jersey over here but this is new york. here is the state line. the train came right down with normally about 50,00