A Long Island Rail Road train that crashed in Brooklyn on Wednesday was going more than twice the speed limit when it slammed into a train station, injuring more than 100 people, federal investigators said on Thursday.
The train was traveling at more than 10 miles per hour when it hit the end of the tracks at Atlantic Terminal, where the speed limit is 5 m.p.h., said Ted Turpin, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. He said that federal officials were investigating the crash and had not yet determined the cause.
The train rammed into a bumping block during the morning rush, striking a room beyond the track and causing the first two cars to derail. The accident was reminiscent of a deadly crash in September in which a New Jersey Transit train plowed into Hoboken Terminal, killing a woman and injuring over 100 people. (That train was also traveling over twice the speed limit there when it crashed.)
On Thursday, Mr. Turpin said the engineer who was operating the Long Island Rail Road train told investigators he could not remember the crash.
“He does recall entering into the station and controlling the speed of the train,” Mr. Turpin said at a news conference. “But then the next thing he realized was after the collision.”
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