The operator told investigators he has no memory of the crash.
The crowded commuter train was doing 33 mph as it entered the Atlantic Terminal before slowing to 15 mph, said the source familiar with the National Transportation Safety Board probe. The speed soon began swinging between 2 mph and 10 mph, with the six-car train traveling at the higher rate before impact.
The train was going above 10 mph when it hit the buffer, though the exact speed has not been revealed. The speed limit for trains approaching station platforms is 5 mph, and the fluctuating speed suggests sleep apnea or some other type of human error, the source said.
LIRR train slams into Brooklyn terminal, injuring 103 people
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The notice of claim filed in Brooklyn came one day after the crash as federal investigators focused their attention on the train’s engineer. (Todd Maisel/New York Daily News)
The engineer provided zero help in determining what went wrong, insisting he remembered nothing of the crash that derailed two cars, shattered glass and filled the station with smoke, NTSB investigator Ted Turpin said.
“The engineer was unable to recall striking the end of the track,” Turpin said at a press conference at a Hilton hotel in downtown Brooklyn. “He does recall entering into the station and controlling the speed of the train.
“But the next thing he recalls was after the collision. We don’t have anything else besides the statement, and he basically said, ‘I don’t recall.’ ”
LIRR derailment victim Clifford Jones, 48, of Queens Village, was the first passenger to take legal action. The city social services case manager announced plans Thursday for a $5 million lawsuit against the commuter line.
The 50-year-old engineer was making the next-to-last trip of a long shift that started at midnight when the wreck occurred at 8:20 a.m., according to Turpin. The unidentified operator, who joined the LIRR in 1999, had returned to work after a three-day New Year’s weekend, he added.
The NTSB was awaiting results of drug and alcohol tests done after the wreck, and the engineer insisted he was not on his cell phone at the moment of impact.
Turpin confirmed the speed of the train was above 10 mph when the accident occurred.
The investigator spoke after a Queens passenger tossed around like a rag doll announced plans for a $5 million lawsuit against the commuter line. Clifford Jones, after fleeing the last car of a crashed train, was first in line Thursday with plans for legal action.
Jones, 48, was injured while making his regular Wednesday morning commute from Queens Village to Brooklyn when the six-car train overshot the platform, with its two front cars derailing.
Attorney Sanford Rubenstein filed a notice of claim Thursday against the LIRR and its parent agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in connection with the crash.
“I feel really, really bad,” said Jones (photo below), a city social services case manager. “I have neck, shoulder and knee pain ... It was like a horror scene. A lot of people were crying, upset.”
His injuries were the result of “careless, reckless, negligent acts” of the railroad and its employees, the notice says.
Gov. Cuomo and MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast both suggested Wednesday that human error — specifically by the engineer — might be to blame.
Hoboken train crash victim's family to sue NJ Transit, engineer
“When you come to the end, it’s the locomotive engineer’s responsibility,” said Prendergast.
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