>> 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 50,000 people

ar train per day they tell us. but it's coming into the hoboken station, which is the terminal stop or final stop of this train. they come right in off this line and head to a bumper in the final yard here right on the hudson river. i have a better picture of it over here to show you. it's coming off these tracks. so many of them, each one of these is a separate train. hundreds and hundreds of them from new jersey transit and each of these is a docking station, track one, two, three. with track five where this happened. the train should have been coming and coming in at 5 miles an hour and by then people would all be standing holding on to the rails because in new york and new jersey you don't wait to get up when it stops, you make a line and prepare to file out and that's what had happened and this train never shroud down. it came from all witness accounts including people as they arrive at full speed and

instead of hitting the bumper here at the end, this is the terminal, there's no where else to go. instead of stopping at the bumper, hit the bumper, went flying into the air, hit the ceiling and fell to the ground, that's the reason so many people injured and that's the reason we have a mass casualty situation. from here normally you go to waiting area, you can go downstairs and catch the path train which would take you across hudson river or new york city or lower manhattan or you can get to fairies which terminates here and come across on the water. they mentioned 250,000 people a day take this, as many of million in new jersey transit in a day and in this day 250 at a time and now we know about 100 of them were hurt. as many 40 walking wounded. people who were at the terminal described dangling wires, collapse roof and water pouring

from the ceiling because the train had hit the ceiling, one witness said she saw a woman stuck underneath concrete and many people bleeding and it happened as people were communicating at 8:45, 250 on the train at the time. some witnesses said it never slowed down when it entered the station. >> i was about 30 feet away from the train when it pull intoed the station and i observed coming at a high rate of speed. it went over the bumper block basically through the air, 40 feet, came to a rest when it hit the wall of the waiting room. it was just initially a horrendous exploding noise and concrete walls and electrical wires and the train flying into the depo. i couldn't believe what i was seeing, you know, something you really -- working there so long, you never believe that would happen. >> no wound would have.

other witness that the train launched forward as it was approaching the train. this is a live look where they are updating on the condition of the victims. let's listen. >> we've connected this women with the transit hotline to make sure they can be communicating with loved ones to make sure everybody is safe. at this time, the emergency department and hospitals are stable condition and every patient has been treated for and is safe. we are not expecting any more at this time. there might be a walk-in wound that had went home and comes in later and we are prepared for anyone that comes in. [inaudible] >> bumps, bruises, lacerations, fractures. >> what's the most serious? >> fracture that happened. >> bad fractures to lots of people, 40 walked in there and were treated on the scene. the hoboken university medical center. rick made across in the early morning and showed first

pictures. rick, it was tough getting up there and once you did it was like a mad house. >> yeah, it was, shepherd. hundreds of first responders who were blocking roads and assisting people getting out of here. i spoke with law enforcement source who was inside the terminal working this scene telling me that many of the injured actually self-extracated, were able to get out of the cars, walking out the doors once they were able to open. many of the first responders putting some of the wounded on stretchers and carrying them out, help them get the care they needed. one of the reasons that the number of injured was fluid was a lot of people were walking out on the road. >> excuse me, rick, a patient who jumped out of the train describing his situation at the hospital. listen. >> it didn't look like you were on the tracks -- >> was i on the tracks? >> i couldn't tell you.

>> what's your name? >> david miy -- mielac. >> what do you remember? >> let's take a listen. >> as i was coming into the station it felt like the car went off the tracks and everybody shimmied and then the impact happened and then sounded like an explosion and everybody fell. the car, the fourth car was diagonal after the crash and luckily the doors opened and we were able to get out but the fourth car was sideways almost and we got out. you know, crowbar fell. >> what were your injuries? >> i was very fortunate. i just injured my foot. nothing that matters today. >> what about other people that you saw? >> we were all very lucky. >> how did you get out in. >> we were able to get out, the

door opened thankfully even though the lights went off and we were all able to walk out. it was from from the landing so we had to jump over to get on to the platform. >> what crossed your mind when everything happened? >> it was surreal. when it first shimmied my first thought this is going to be a life changer. >> why did this crash coming, do you know? >> it was coming faster than normal, usually it crawls when it comes to the station and it was overcrowded because there was a car short. i only hope that whoever was running the train, driving the train had a medical problem that caused this to happen or wasn't anything other because it's too tragic for anybody. >> you felt the brake failed?

>> i didn't feel brakes at all. i'm afraid to get back on the train and i've been commuting to new york city for 30 years. so i don't know. >> you always take the train? >> i take the train, i'm in sales so i have to take public transportation all of the time and i'm just staying home tomorrow. >> you made it, though. >> i did. god is watching over me. the hospital -- over here were just a lot of bruises, a lot of people were just stunned. people just trying to -- to recreate what happened in those moments and realize that they were grateful and thankful ones to be here and not be in critical care or worse. so people here really have the right attitude. i just bruised my foot which is, you know, it's not nothing that i won't get over. >> imagine you have made this trip for 30 years.

commuting into the city like so many millions. she's in sales and suddenly the train is not slowing down. look at what happened. the first car as it's been described to us, there's no engine in the first car, just the conductor in the first car, that first car went airborne, hit the ceiling and fell to the tracks, the second car crashed into it which left so many people in that car injured. the third diagonal and the fourth diagonal across the station and it was that fourth car that she came out of, that fourth car that had turned completely so the first few observed the major part of the impact, slamming into the barrier, collapsing down from once it came, the fourth one went diagonally so it didn't have as much impact and the lady who has commuted for sales job in the city and scared to get on the train tomorrow, realizes how lucky she was with bumps and bruises, she hurt her foot a little bit. that was not the case in the

first car. she mentioned the conductor who was in the front. you heard earlier was unresponsive upon -- upon authorities getting to the scene. we have varying reports on that conductor but the condition is not good. another person has died and so many in the very going, rick, i wonder when you came upon this scene if you had any clue what you were about to be in the middle of of in the early reports that a train had a mishap, that's about all we knew. >> we were told a train crash and at least two dozen injured and, of course, number sky-rocketed and the walking wounded began showing up at hospitals and began putting into ambulances. i haven't been able to confirm that the fatality was a woman, was possible ejected from the train but they believe in fact,

that she was standing on the platform and was hit by debris when this train crashed. so a woman apparently standing on the platform waiting for the train hit by debris and killed during this accident. i was told the emergency unit extracated two people from the car including worker and were taken to the hospital for treatment. one confirmed fatality at this hour. i was told that there is video that they will be have viewing, video on the train and video in the terminal that the federal railroad accident investigators and ntsb will be going as part of investigation as to why this train came into this terminal at such a high rate of speed. >> that's a very good question. there's nothing at this point to indicate this is anything -- anything terrorism related at all. i only bring it up because it surfaced in people's conversation. there is nothing to suggest that. it's early reporting but our

belief is -- we heard so many people speculate about whose fault it is. it's way too early for that. we don't know if the engineer did anything wrong. we don't know what the engineer's medical situation was. we do know there was speculation, i can tell you. there was no positive train control. there's no what they called dead-man switch. for instance, you to keep your hand on it or the train stops moving. if your hands come off, if you go -- if you faint or something and your hand comes off the large lever the train would come to a stop. on new york city subway systems your hands is on it and if you let off, the train stops. new jersey don't have positive control stops. but for now we really do not know. these are live pictures outside the hospital now. you see people in stretchers, so often some of these people are being admitted. some are being taken out but it's been an incredibly busy there. we heard our own dr. manny

álvarez who works in this hospital system, describable that they could have expected and certainly we've been seeing some of those. rick, a lot of walking wounded out there. i know you were able to speak to a few speak. what a traumatic event to have to get off the train and talk about it. >> horrific. i just spoke with someone who was not on the train but in the station and heard the impact, said he thought there was a bomb, that a bomb went off. it felt like an explosion, the ground shook beneath him. kicked up all sorts of concrete, dust, he looked into the dusty scene below him and saw people crawling out of the dust, bleeding, crying, horrific scene. this guy who was not on the train was shaking. we spoke to a woman who was on

the train and was having a tough time recounting because it was such a traumatic event for her and other people who were on the train or in the terminal when the accident occurred. >> yeah, i think for now that's appropriate. we know it's a crash. i want to show our viewers. we have been look -- go back to the video. you see the long stretches of lights in the ceiling. it's not really lights, those are the train tracks there and above it are huge skylights. the train as it went into the station on track 5, the front of it it hit a big bumper like when you're on your boat and you're coming into a dock, they have the huge bummers, well that bumpers will stop 10 feet. my experience has been 5 to 10 feet. when you get off the train, say you're in car four and you're walking toward the terminal and

you see the front of the train. it's just down to the left. here to the other side of this video wall and you would see the empty spot and then the big bumper that's at the end. instead of stopping 5 to 10 feet before it went in, hit that bumper and it went airborne and then crushed down below and the ceiling collapsed on top of that because of the force of the train's impact. as for the conductor, we know that he was unresponsive when he got off the train. do we know anything past that? >> well, i was told that the conductor and the engineer are both very much alive but obviously they're being treated for injuries we are told. i was told the two people that were extracated from the front car were brought to the hospital and were living and, you know, there had been various reports of the number of deaths, but i think it's worth mentioning we

do call this an accident. this is a routine thing that happens every morning and every day, hundreds of times a day the train comes into the station and the trains leave the station, so the key question is why would this train be going so fast when the conductor and the engineer know that they're arriving at a station, the end of the line, why would they be speeding? was it a brake failure, equipment failure, operator error? that's something that they will be looking into it. i'm watching officials as they approach microphones. we are expecting news conference at the top of the hour with mayor and transit officials and i see state officials approaching microphone. i'm not sure if they will be speaking right now. they have landed in a helicopter. a lot of officials trying to get to the bottom of what happened. >> a lot of officials coming in by chopper. the governor and mayor is arriving.

chris christie, main statement that there was zero indication that it was more than traffic accident. any warning signs, none that they've been informed of. all appearances, this was just one of those things that now has to be explained, one of the many questions that we are going to have to be dealing with, how are people going to get into man heatan. to say that this is a massive transit station is no understate it. there are other ways into the city. there's a light rail you can take to get to the western side of the river there. there are other tunnels that bring trains in. there are enormous bus system that operates a bus system which brings thousands upon thousands of buses into the port authority bus terminal which is -- actually just about east of this. the port authority bus terminal

which there are lines of buses. if you were to leave manhattan in the morning driving towards new jersey, there's an entire lane of nothing but buses as far as the eye can see, hundreds and hundreds of them coming in. i tell you they are all full. they are public and private and many different lines, they come from every little town, inland, down the shore and the prospects of moving people around in this enormous city are daunting and i'm very interested personally to find out how in the world they're going to manage this. is that right, ben, did you see it? >> yeah, that's right. i came in around track 16 or 17 which is the farthest away from where the -- where you connect to the path and my typical commute kind of takes me through the main area of terminal to catch the path when it came --

>> because most people don't live here, the path is underneath hudson river or around fourth street, take you up 33rd, around sixth avenue, into the heart of the city a that's the way you would go? >> that's correct. i was walking and i didn't realize the severity until a few seconds after. you get into the normal routine and you get stunned by what you just saw. i didn't see it take place. >> i bet you heard it. >> i didn't hear it but it was weird because the train conductor didn't say anything on the train that we were on and it was quiet. a lot of people -- i heard -- a lot of people were trying to figure out how to help including myself but the debris and roof had collapsed and we tried to get closer but you realized that you were going to put yourself in danger by doing so and the emergency service folks hadn't

quite arrived yet. >> did you even have an idea of what happened? >> yes, it was immediately clear that there was a crash. the train came on to the platform and ran directly to the terminal. there was debris everywhere and people climbing out of the windows, a number of people who had gotten off, bleeding. i witnessed one woman unconscious on the ground. it was a devastating scene for sure. >> ben, i don't know about what but getting on and off the train is a everyday a thing. you do it with your eyes close. i can walk out of my apartment and end up on my train station without even paying attention. you do it as such a matter of routine and have that routine blow up in your face must have been really traumatizing. even when i went to get on the train to go to work after this happened this morning, you know, you're thinking, this could happen any time. >> yeah, when you see something say something is so effective because so many people are head

down in routine and you don't pay attention to your surroundings but unfortunately i was doing exactly as you just described, i closed my laptop and i was trying to get on the path train and that's why it stunned me. i didn't realize until i tripped on the debris and you're absolutely right. it was one of those things where the routine is completely sort of -- you're literally stopped and floored at what took place. >> my guess is you will get back on the train tomorrow if available? >> i would. i heard you describing of what's going to happen to the whole system working from home is certainly i'm going to plan on unless there's some sort of alternative. >> for people who don't understand the train lines all over the place, do you have other options? you can get a bus to port authority? >> i can. it's going to be me and everybody else in the world who

are doing the same thing. how many buses are they going to make available, on time. yeah. so who knows what it's going to impanel. i wasn't in the area when sandy hit but i know this terminal took a significant amount of damage when that happened as well. it's quite unfortunate that this is happening after they've made so much repairs to it. >> it's unending for new jersey. this happened on track 5. ben, it's good to talk to you. i'm glad that you're good. >> i appreciate it. >> you come -- it happens with such a routine that now there has to be a new routine and establishing that sort of thing -- i can't describe to you the chaos of this coming. he talked about when super storm sandy hit, what happened was the water came into the hudson river and it's very low line there in hoboken.

i showed you it's on water. it flooded that whole thing. i have friends who live in hoboken who were flooded six to eight ten weeks at a time. not just one friend but lot of friends. i know friends that moved to people over in queens, on the other side of the east river and lives were disrupted for so long and it took them a year or more to get these stations back up and running because it's lower, it goes underneath the river but this station as well and hoboken is one of the most densely populated areas in america. it's one square mile with -- as a matter of fact more bars per square mile than any place in the country. largely a place where young people go to live because the prices were lower there, maybe 15 years ago and you would go there and live there right out of school, you would work in finance or whatever, travel into the city, work in midtown and it

would -- you would stay there for a couple of years an move out and the next young people would come in. now people stay in hoboken and it has gotten stronger. it's a terrific commuter life because you leaf -- leave hoboken and you were in the city in five minutes or you were until this morning. that's over. the transit board will be holding news conference in a few minutes. the train is port authority operated by new york, new jersey, separate authority separately financed and runs world trade center sites, john f kennedy, laguardia, the holland tunnel, the george washington bridge. it runs everything and those two governors are part of it and

they'll be holding a news conference in just a minute as well. doug with an update from washington on the investigation itself. national transportation safety board in the lead as always right, doug? >> that's right. also the federal railroad administration sending crew. once they arrive on the scene there, a couple of key factors. they have to seal the crash scene. first thing first, they will make sure, look to see whether the emergency brake was applied, examining all switches, all hoses leading to the brakes to see if there's scoring on the brakes. i will be examining very closely. very key as self-evident in

interview with the engineer in in case. we have heard as you mentioned that he was unresponsive at this time. we hope that they will interview him, drug testing and alcohol testing is a key component. anybody who works for any railroad in this country is subject to random drug and alcohol testing and threshold, indeed -- you lose yourç job instantaneously.t( they also take random urinalysis testing, andç interestingly, shep, in a recent washington post article from september 15th of thisç year, i'm going to re, because it's really fascinating. we're not pointing to the particular engineer, but listen to the that at this timics. testing has shown nearly 8% of workers involved in accidents were positive for drug use including marijuana, cocaine, morphine obtained to federal

documents obtained by "the washington post." so he will, if he survives this event, undergo significant drug testing and alcohol testing and, shep, that's -- we'll be finding out more about that in the day. shepard: doug mci'llway, thanks for that. this train usually you hear so much about electrified trains in new york city. ourç subway systems are electrified, most but not all of the long island railroad. this is an old-fashioned push locomotive which is in the back of the train, so it's a push locomotive, not a pull. it's pushing the cars into the station, so the force was coming from the rear. and the engineer who'sç guiding the whole thing is way up in the front car, but that's not where the engine is. it's being pushed from behind, so all of that force onto that first car. and when that happened, as that went airborne, bill hemmer was working to come on the air, and he did. and since he's gotten off the air has made his way across the

river to hoboken and is live outside the station.ç different perspective over there, i'm guessing. >> indeed it is, shepard, good afternoon to you. the source of a lotç of information right now is going to come from theseç briefings,ç the heart of the matter depending on how much they're willing and, frankly, able to tell us. but i think what you are on right there is a critical part ofñrç this, who was in charge at the time of the collision and what were they doing. and that right now is an open question. i spoke with an eyewitness earlier today during "america's newsroom," joe finan's his name. he takes this commute at the same time every day and arrives in the station at the same minute of every hour monday through friday. he said when he was coming into the station, he was seated, so he was lucky. but coming into the station, there was no indication that the train was slowing down. he said they maintained the level of speed that they would have between regular stops or regular stations which could be in excess of perhaps 30 miles an

hour? that's an extraordinary speed for something of this size to gç crashing through this bumper and hit the concrete. you see the intersection of steel and glass that all came together. it was, it was a stunner for him and everyone onboard. what he described, she@a °ñ is that about 25 people inç that car, he was in carmy number two, by the way. car number two had 25 people minimum standing, and they would have easily been the mostxd "he described to me a number of headç injuries, perhaps to the face, to the head and many of those people have been treated and in all likelihood based on the hospital briefings so far, most of them if not all could be released today. the hospital spokeswoman that we spoke to and heard from about 30 minutes ago, she said 51 people walked into the hospital, walking in, certainly, is the better of these two options, as you knowç clearly. and she says most of them will be released today. she described one bone fracture which is pretty extraordinary when you think of these commuters who were, in all

likelihood, just trying to hustle off the train and catch the next train to go into town and work for the day, or perhaps they were listening to music on on their smartphone, reading news updates or perhaps even a newspaper, as arcane as that may sound. but these were regular folks going about regularç bu[ioess n a schedule that they are used to with no anticipation for what was in front of them. again, when the ntsb briefs, we should get a better indication as to who was in charge at 8:38, 8:45, that's about the 7-minute window that now is in question. new jersey transit has confirmed the engine driving this car at the time was in the rear, but if there's an engineer that's íoá been injured and was in the front of this car, what were they doing, what sort of control did they have or, frankly, at this point, shepard, what kind of control did they not have. briefing coming up momentarily. and one last thing. if you heard an eyewitness 15 minutesç ago, a woman who was clearly shooken up -- shaken up,

rather, and what she said, you heard it. she's been taking this train 30 years into the city, and now she's not quite sure if she'll do it ever again. what she said i thought was fascinating, she said she did not feel the train brake at all. the question is why. shepard, back to you in new york. shepard: bill, thankç you. those early reports as you were on theç air, ii] was watching e getting ready to come in here and take the second shift. i heard people talking about an explosion and, you know, it made all of our hearts stop for just a minute, but now we understand why. because that train crashed into that enormous concrete bumper and went airborne and then fell down on this enormous areai] of concrete where thousands and thousandsçç of people detrainh day to go into the waiting area and make their way to the ferries or the path train. it sounded like an explosion. thankfully, it was not an explosion. what we have today is an accident and an awful one. and we're expecting news

conferences fromç both governos of new york and new jersey, the national transportation safety board all coming up in just a moment. so that we don't miss them, a this is fox news channel, america's choice for news and information on cable. ♪ it's a tangle of multiple symptoms. ♪ ♪ trintellix (vortioxetine) is a prescription medicine for depression. trintellix may start to untangle or help improve the multiple symptoms of depression. for me, trintellix made a difference. tell your healthcare professional right away if your depression worsens, or you have unusual changes in mood, behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. trintellix has not been studied in children. do not take with maois. tell your healthcare professional about your medications, including migraine, psychiatric and depression medications

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shepard: 24 minutes before 1:00 eastern time now, and in new jersey they're still at the crash scene there. we're waiting for a news conference to begin from the national transportation safety board at any moment, we're led to believe. but the new jersey governor, chris christie, has spoken with news 12 new jersey, a local cable outlet there, and has begin us some new information including this: the engineer who was in that first car that went airborne, we're told, governor christie says he is in critical condition getting medical treatment at the level i trauma center there and otherwise all the victims are out and either have been treated or are being treated. another big matter, structural engineers are inspecting the station. they're very worried about the structural integrity of this

thing and are going to have to make decisions in the days ahead about whether they're able to use it at all. that said, the governor reminds new jersey transit, which goes all over the state of new jersey, and the path trains which connect new jersey with the city of new york, the service that does not go to hoboken, in other words, goes into other new jersey terminals, will be operating as scheduled throughout the today and tomorrow and going forward. so if you take the path into onr there, it's going to be working. trace gallagher with background on this whole system. it's a little wonky, but the way trains work and the way we move around a couple million people today is interesting to me and, trace, history says this is not going to be quick. >> no, it's not, shep. it'll be curious when you talk about the engineer being in critical condition whether the injuries happened postcrash or before the crash. we do not know his medical state before this thing went down. you and doug mckelway and leventhal were tushing on the --

touching on the aspect of the investigation here. what's also critical to point out, shep, is not only do they have cameras inside the train and in the platform and station itself, but there are also -- there's a black box on the train itself. not really a cockpit voice recorder, but there is a data recorder which will give you all of the actual increments of what was happening onboard that train. they'll know exactly how fast it was going, they'll know when the brakes were applied if brakes were applied and if, in fact, the brakes worked, when they were applied. it's interesting also to note that cbs 2 there local in new york about a year ago took a civil engineering group down, and they studied the trains in new jersey and on long island and metro north coming in from connecticut and found that all of these trains as they came into the station were going too fast. the speed should be somewhere between 20 and 25 miles per hour, and the civil engineering group apparently found these trains were going somewhere between 35 and up to 38 miles per hour coming in, these

trains, which is clearly too fast. we have talked at length about the positive control system, right? the positive control train system that slows the trains down automatically, it's kind of a computer system, mandated by congress to be on all tracks across the country in 2008. it was supposed to be fully implemented by 2015. clearly, it did not happen. now they've extended it to 2018. that's not going to happen either. the problem is money. none of these jurisdictions have enough money. there was great pressure in pennsylvania after that amtrak crash a couple of years ago to get the positive train control system put in. they did, now all of southern pennsylvania's tracks have it. new jersey's tracks don't. long island's tracks don't. the tracks from new york to connecticut and up to, and up to the river cities also do not have that system yet, shep. and you've also got to keep in mind that when we talk about trains coming into the stations very quickly in these metro areas, it's because the

municipalities in the suburbs of new york are all putting great pressure on the trains to be on time. the real estate groups, the commerce groups all need these trains to be on time. and with recent accidents, there is pressure from congress, pressure from the safety groups and the ntsb to get these trains slowed down, and you have this outsourcing pressure from the different commerce groups saying these trains need to be on time, and you have the train companies that are actually trying to split the difference there. so as this investigation goes on, the first thing the ntsb will look at is what was the state of mind or the health of the engineer onboard that train because, as bill hemmer was touching on earlier, we have found in most cases that there is some kind of distraction factor involved in a lot of this, shep. shepard: that's what the investigations have shown. trace, that's really interesting. i remember that cbs 2 investigation, and for this particular line when we talk about coming in at 25, 30 miles an hour, that's back here. so as you're coming in here into

this big yard -- i hope i can make this a little bigger. there we go. here are these trains, one, two, three, four, five cars, but this one was a car short today, they were running with just four cars on the train, i believe. they say it was a car short, so i think there were only four. but you can see how they come in here, coming in hot here. 30, 25, 20 miles an hour, and then you slow down, and by the time you get to the terminal, which is here -- again, these are all five-car trains -- by the time you to get in here, you're supposed to be going about 5 miles an hour because people are standing. there's rows of seats, row, row, row. it's not like a new york city subway line where you have the rows like this. it's regular like you would have on a bus, seats that are parallel in that way. and people start getting up because you've got to get -- you're in new york, you've got to go, you've got to go. i can talk to ross bauer now, he was in the number three car. so the third car before the terminal there. and what, ross, like the third or fourth seat, is that right, when all this happened?

>> that's correct, shep. shepard: so what did you hear? what were you thinking? >> we were pulling into the station like any normal morning, and then all of a sudden there was a, you know, jolted out of our seats. there was a very loud crash, you know? first thought, you think explosion or something like that. turns out it was just the, you know, the roof of the terminal that collapsed and then, you know, everyone was kind of sitting there in stunned silence for a minute. shepard: i know that fourth car got diagonal on 'em. what happened with your car? did it stay on the tracks? >> it did seem to stay on the tracks, and we were able to exit through the normal doors. it looked like the train directly many front of us, you know, was diagonal -- >> that number two car? >> right. shepard: so you walked out like normal, the doors opened, you walked out, and what did you see? >> yeah, you know, you looked up the platform, you know, the whole thing was collapsed. the train had clearly, you know, derailed off the tracks, and you could see that, you know, the roof of the terminal had collapsed. there were people climbing out

of the emergency exit windows. it was pretty crazy to see. shepard: i wondered if you saw victims who were in bad shape. >> you know, on the way out of the terminal, you know, they directed us around, and i went out to the rest area and there, you know, they were staging some people who were injured. i saw one man who was, you know, very visibly injured, you know, he had blood coming out of, you know, his head and his arms, and he looked -- he was being tended to. and, you know, going out of the station, you could see blood on the ground. it was pretty horrifying. shepard: ross, i know that first car went airborne, there were people nutter there -- people hurt in there. describe your car, was it not as much as the first two, i would guess? >> yeah, you know, we were all jolted out of our seat, some people who were standing and waiting to exit the train, they had cuts on their forehead, but nothing serious like people who were up front. shepard: i'm wondering how people were acting, you know? because it's such a matter of routine. you get on new jersey transit,

you get off that, you get on the path, you go into the city. you do it all sort of without thinking about it, and when something weird like this happens, was it chaos, was it more measured? >> it was, you know, it was kind of surreal, you know? you're looking around, you know, you're stunned, first of all, and your first instinct is i want to help somebody, and everything's kind of under control. you know, there's tons of police already in the building, you know, just, you know, for normal security, so they were on the scene immediately helping people. so you just kind of -- a lot of people were just milling around, you know, taking their pictures and everything, of course. but, you know, it seemed everyone was stunned. shepard: yeah. i can't imagine that you wouldn't be. were people able to get it together and get down to the path train or go to the ferries, or was it so jumbled that you couldn't really make that happen? >> yeah. the entrance to the path train was completely cut off. i heard that, you know, you couldn't get in there. not sure about that but, you know, me, i just had to turn around and, you know, i live upstate new jersey, i just went back home.

there was no way to get into the city at that point. shepard: right. well, it sounds like, you know, i guess if you'd been in that first car, it'd be a whole different story. i never thought about -- i get on a car based on when you get off where my exit stairs are, you know? >> right. shepard: on new jersey transit, you kind of want to be as close to the front as possible, or you used to. >> yeah, exactly. me, i kind of like sitting in the back, so -- [laughter] paid off today. schell schell i feel you. it's -- shepard, i feel you. it's a longer walk, but sounds like it's safer. ross, i'm glad you're good. bill hemmer's still out there. you saw a man come to a microphone there on the big wall, that's the national transportation safety board, they were just spelling out names for us. but in a minute, we're going to hear from them, and we'll have that live. bill hemmer's on scene in hoboken. is order restored? looks like it. >> it seems to be a lot more than earlier today. i mean, the first two hours it was chaos, as you can imagine,

shepard. we're told that they train and they drill for this, literally train and drill for this about four times a year, so once every three months. we'll see whether or not, you know, the practice was put in to good use here. it appears to be that way. you know, early on there were indications that there were people trapped. i do know there was one report through the associated press that a woman was trapped, and we don't know the extent of her injuries or how they got her out or extricated her or whether or not they had to bring in some sort of heavy machinery. it's quite possible they did not have to do that if you have the manpower on the inside to lift material off of her and eventually get her free. so we'll wait for information on that. i really think the ultimate question, shepard, right now and whether or not the ntsb is about to share that information i cannot say, and we'll wait on that together, but who was in charge at 8:45 a.m., what were they doing, where were they and what now can they piece together as to how this happened. you hear these passengers

describe the fact that, you know, there was no change in speed. well, you're coming into a train station on the edge of the hudson river, and if there's no change in speed, man, you put your head down and you hope for the best. and that's what we heard from several passengers onboard, that they knew that they were coming into the station, and they weren't slowing down. as i mentioned earlier, a woman said that she felt no application of brakes at all. and now we'll hear from the hospital too hopefully in the next hour or so. we're told the governor of new jersey, chris christie, the governor from new york, andrew cuomo, they will both be here at about 2:00 eastern time, so that's about an hour and 15 minutes from now and, clearly, they're getting a briefing from their own staff, and we should get their reaction too. governor cuomo, i am told, will not now fly to israel for the funeral of shimon peres. he will stay close home and see how we can get answers on this. but again, who was in charge, what were they doing, shepard.

shepard: bella denzar with the ntsb with an update. she's at reagan national. >> our condolences and sympathies to everyone who was affected by the accident today. the ntsb team will be led by mr. jim southworth who will serve as the investigator in charge. he's accompanied by ntsb staff with expertise in a multidisciplinary range of activities including operations, mechanics, track, signals, human performance and survival factors. also accompanying the team are members of the ntsb's transportation disaster assistance office and the office of public affairs. our tda specialists are already working closely with local officials in order to assist them in their efforts to assist everyone who is affected by this accident. we expect to arrive in hoboken later today.

and for the latest information on media briefings, i encourage you to go to our web site which is ntsb.gov and also follow us on our twitter handle which is @ntsb underscore newsroom. again, we are just launching our go team, so we'll have more information after we arrive on scene and begin the investigation, and we'll be sure to get that to you as soon as we have it. now, i think i have time for two or three questions. if you would raise your hand, identify yourself, and i will call on you. yes, sir. >> john -- [inaudible] with the star ledger. >> yes, sir. >> the absence of positive train control, is that something you're going to be looking at in the accident? >> the question is will we be looking at positive train control? absolutely. ptc has been one of our priorities. we know that it can prevent accidents. whether it is involved in this accident, that is definitely one of the things that we will look at carefully. >> [inaudible] from reuters. first, can you confirm how many people have been killed and

injured in the incident? >> so the question is could we confirm how many people have been killed or injured, and you've probably seen the media reports, but we are there to investigate the cause of this accident, so we'll be working with the local authorities for that. >> you looking at the similarities between this crash and the one that happened in p.r.n -- [inaudible] >> the question is, will we will looking at the similarities between this crash and the crash that occurred in 2011, and yes, we will. that occurred at the same station on mother's day in 2011, and we always look at the past history and every other factor. but right now we are going to hit the ground running. i have a team ready to get on the plane with me right now. we have others on their way in cars and trains, so we may have another news briefing later this afternoon, and if we do, we'll let you know. but regardless, we will hit the ground running and let you know what happens. thank you. >> thank you. shepard: vice chairman there of the national transportation safety board talking about the

train crash in hoboken, new jersey. the first question came from a reporter for the new jersey star ledger newspaper based out of newark and serves the whole state, and the question was positive train control, was that going to be part of your focus, and she said certainly it will be. one of the things we've come to learn is that there is no ptc. the best of the reporting that we've been given today from officials with the new jersey transit system is that they don't have that. and i mentioned earlier if you're riding on an nyc subway car, any of the lines in new york, there's a bar that goes down, and you have to physically put your hand down on this bar and hold your hand on that bar to keep that train moving. you don't just, you know, press the gas pedal. there's a handle there. and if your hand goes limp, if you faint, if somebody comes in and attacks you no matter what it is, your hand comes off that have thing, and the train comes to a stop wherever it is. they have that in new york city, they have that on almost all foreign train lines all over

italy, all over europe, positive train control. if the person who's running the train stops running the train, the train stops. it does not continue running on its own. it's a very basic thing they've been working to get into train systems all over the united states, and my understanding of it is this morning from talking to people from new jersey transit is they don't have it. is that a cause? we don't know. we don't have any way of knowing what was going on with that conductor who was in the first car. the engines are in the rear car, the conductor's in the first car, or the engineer in this case, and would normally apply the brakes in that first car as you come first into the yard there, the sort of staging area before you get a track. sometimes you have to wait back a half mile, quarter mile or so and wait for a track. it's just like at at the airport. if your flight's in a little bit early, you have to wait for your parking space there at the gate. another plane has to get out of the way. that's the case at the hoboken station where they have 16 lines there, so one train has to move for another one to get in. sometimes you have to wait.

they clearly didn't have to wait today, they came in hot, hit that bumper and went airborne and now we have a disaster of pretty big proportions over in hoe locallen and a transportation system -- hoboken and a transportation system that will be largely crippled at least through hoboken where they have been through everything. hoboken, man, it's such a fantastic place to live, but ever since hurricane sandy, it has been one problem after another. bill hemmer's over there again. they have endured a lot. it's a little bit cheaper to live over there, you get a lot more light, there's some good schools, great restaurants and parks, really easy commute into the city until it isn't. >> yeah, that's right. there's a train station -- not this one, but another commuter line that was where they found the pipe bombs just two weeks ago, shepard. so it's been in the news now for two weeks solid. listen, you were talking about positive train control. matt finn, our correspondent out of chicago, just recently filed a piece on this whole legislation and how it's going about. he reports that california has

it, colorado has it, pennsylvania has it as well, but by and large, places like new jersey and so many other states do not have it. it is mandated by congress to be installed by the year 2018, but that is little consolation for what we're looking at today. as i give you that information, i must caution you too because we don't know, shepard, whether or not ptc, positive train control, would have had an effect here. we don't know if this was a mechanical issue. we don't know if it was human error. we don't know, frankly, if there's a chance that it was intentional. and this is, this is what we're waiting on now, and this is why these briefings are so important. if the officials have the answers, we're waiting along with the rest of the country to figure out what the cause of this is. and when you hear passengers say that they've been on this for three decades, same line, same train every morning, five days a week and now they're scared to ever get on a train again, well,

this is the part that officials play now in reassuring the public if they can, shepard, that this is, this is a safe way to go because there are some concerned people here in new jersey and new york and, certainly, other parts of the country. we need to fill in those blanks and, hopefully, we'll get some of those answers very soon. shepard: yep, i hope so. they've got enough microphones up there, bill. we're not short on media with. we're looking at the location where they're about to hold this news conference. somebody just brought in another microphone, and i felt like i was watching a big game of general georgia, is it going -- jenga, is it going to come crashing down. that's the spot where we're going to get the informa i know as someone who grew up outside the city and in a place where you don't know what public transportation is, you're probably shaking your heads like, my god, why do these people live like this in the first place? it's a good question. and i think we all wonder a lot of days when, you know, you're relying on others to get you

from one place to another, it is a frustrating, time-consuming, also expensive way to live. you live outside the city -- a lot of people just like living in the suburbs, and god bless 'em. a lot of people like it because it's a little bit cheaper, and part of it is you've got to take trains and buses and everything else to get into the city, and when they don't work, your life is destroyed. you long sometimes for that, for the slow drive and having to honk at people at the green light in oxford on a day like this, you know? it's like why -- would you please go, just move? we've got to get there. they're going to be talking like that in hoboken for a long time. be glad this is not your hell, because that's what it's going to be for people who live in hoboken one more time. top of the hour means the top of the news, and a news conference is coming right after this. heartburn relief gummies. they don't taste chalky and work fast. mmmm. incredible. can i try? she doesn't have heartburn. new alka-seltzer heartburn relief gummies. enjoy the relief.

injured when the train barrelled in the hoboken station. the station part of the new jersey transit system and one of the busiest transit hubs in the nation. it was in the end of the line and twisted wreckage landing inside of the waiting area of the passenger station. the national transportation safety board is investigating. witnesses on and off of the train said it pulled in at full speed. >> it was just initially