Originally published: December 3, 2013 10:41 AM
Updated: December 3, 2013 6:05 PM
By KEVIN DEUTSCH,EMILY NGO AND ELLEN YAN [email protected]
Photo credit: Charles Eckert | Emergency workers carry Metro-North engineer William Rockefeller away from the train derailment site in the Bronx. (Dec. 1, 2013)
The engineer of the derailed Metro-North train caught himself nodding at the controls before the train started to veer off its tracks and crashed in the Bronx, a rail union official told The Associated Press Tuesday.
Union leader Anthony Bottalico said that William Rockefeller "caught himself, but he caught himself too late," according to the AP. Bottalico said Rockefeller told him he "nodded," akin to a momentary lapse while driving a car.
A law enforcement source earlier Tuesday told Newsday that the engineer told investigators he was "in a daze" just before the crash, oblivious to the train picking up speed as it shot into a treacherous curve.
PHOTOS: Metro-North train derailment
VIDEO: Watch aerial footage of derailment
MORE: Complete coverage
Investigators have found no problems so far with the signal system or brakes on the Metro-North train that derailed on Sunday, killing four people, an official with the National Transportation Board said Tuesday afternoon.
Alcohol tests also came back negative on each of the train crew members -- the engineer, a conductor and three assistant conductors, NTSB officials said. The drug test results were not in.
Rockefeller could not recall any of his actions until just before the 82 mph train careened off the tracks in a 30 mph zone, said the source, who described the engineer as "somewhere between being asleep with his eyes open and just being spaced out."
"He admitted he was not attentive at that time," the source said. "He appears to have drifted off into this kind of trance. It's similar to what might occur when someone has been driving for a long period, staring at the road, and loses focus for a time.
"In other words, he was there, but not there."
Rockefeller has been put "out of service without pay," the MTA said.
As investigators examined the engineer's performance, authorities have been clearing the crash scene and trying to restore not just normal service along the Hudson Line but confidence in Metro-North's safety.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that more than 98 percent of its regular Hudson Line service has been restored in time for Wednesday's morning commute, with service running on just one of set of rails while repairs continue on the other two tracks, which have much more damage. About 800 feet of tracks built, debris cleared and spilled fuel vacuumed up before it leaked into the Hudson and Harlem rivers, he said.
The report on what happened in the crash won't be finished for weeks.
But based on Rockefeller's own statements, investigators believe he may have zoned out or fallen asleep, which would explain why he did not hit the brakes until seconds before the derailment, the source said.
NTSB board member Earl Weener declined to divulge information from interviews of crew members but said train operator, a 15-year Metro-North employee, has been an engineer for 10 years of them.
He has been on the Poughkeepsie-Manhattan route full time since Nov. 17, with a typical work day lasting nine hours over two round trips, Weener said.
Sunday, the engineer started work shortly after 5 a.m., the second day of his work week, and the previous shift was another "routine" day on the job, the NTSB official said.
"There's every indication he would have had time to get full restorative sleep," Weener said.
He said data from Rockefeller's cell phone has not yet been analyzed, but the law enforcement source said investigators do not believe the engineer was using it at the time of the crash.
As investigators zero in on the Rockefeller's actions, they're looking closely at several angles, the source said. That includes the engineer's work logs and schedule to determine if he was getting the proper amount of time off between runs; when he last slept; any medications he may be taking; and health conditions that may have affected his performance.
Rockefeller, 46, of Germantown, told first responders he had applied the brakes but they did not work, the source said. He then tried to "dump" them, which is similar to pulling a car's emergency brake, the source said.
Bottalico, head of the union representing the Metro-North crew, has called Rockefeller diligent and competent and that he was traumatized by the derailment. Rockefeller had been treated and released Sunday from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.
Four passengers were killed and scores injured when cars in the Poughkeepsie train to Manhattan shot off the tracks and skidded to the water's edge at 7:20 a.m.
Bronx prosecutors, along with the NYPD and MTA police, are conducting a separate probe into the crash and will determine whether losing focus or sleeping at the train's controls amounts to criminal recklessness or negligence, the law enforcement source said.
NTSB investigators expect to finish interviewing the engineer on Wednesday.
Cuomo called the engineer's inattentive state at the head of a train a "gross deviation" and said he will be disciplined.
"Certainly, we want to make sure that that operator is disciplined in an appropriate way," he told reporters at an unrelated event. "There is such a gross deviation from the norm, that there may be other agencies that also want to take a look at his behavior in operating the train. Obviously, he has his own legal rights. I understand he has a legal counsel . . . But that amount of speed is certainly unjustifiable."
The governor said he also spoke to the head of MTA Tuesday and directed the agency to implement a "safety stand-down" in which all employees must participate in safety briefings.
Without hurting service, workers will attend meetings to take a fresh look at what they do and discuss ways of improving safety, an MTA source said. It's a way to reinforce the culture at work, not just the rule book, the source said.
"The safety precautions will be redoubled and let's get the tracks up and running," Cuomo told reporters.
On Monday, Weener said a preliminary analysis of the two "event recorders" shows the seven-car train being pushed by a locomotive was traveling at 60 mph two minutes before the crash but sped up to 82 mph as it went into the curve.
The brakes were applied about five seconds before the 5:54 a.m. train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Terminal stopped moving at 7:20 a.m. Cars derailed about 100 feet north of the Spuyten Duyvil station -- ejecting some passengers and nearly plunging into the Harlem River, Weener said.
Using the brakes at that time was "very late in the game" to try to slow down for the curve, said Weener, who is leading the investigation. The train made nine stops before the derailment and there were no problems with the brakes at those times, he said.
Why the train was going faster than the 70 mph limit before the curve is "the question we need to answer," Weener said.
The NTSB investigation parallels the criminal one from local authorities.
This is routinely done in fatal transit accidents in case district attorney officials determine a crime was committed. The NTSB cannot file criminal charges.
The law enforcement source said subpoenas have been issued for the train driver's cellphone records, blood samples, drug and alcohol test results and other evidence.
The Bronx district attorney's spokesman Steve Reed would not confirm a criminal probe, saying "we're monitoring the investigation by the NTSB and we are part of several agencies involved."
The four people killed were Donna L. Smith, 54, a paralegal from Newburgh; James G. Lovell, 58, a network television technician from Cold Spring; James M. Ferrari, 59, of Montrose; and Ahn Kisook, 35, a pediatric nurse from Queens.
Investigators are still gathering and assessing data, including footage from a surveillance camera that has been sent to a lab in Washington, D.C., to be enhanced. The video, provided by the MTA, was taken from a nearby bridge and shows "flashes followed by a cloud of dust" as the train hit the electrified third rail, Weener said.
Weener has declined to reveal what he told investigators, who plan to talk to other crew members in the coming days.
The law enforcement source said Rockefeller's statements would be compared with information from the train's data recorders.
"The data tells the story of how this happened," the source said. "It corroborates or debunks."
Investigators are looking at the 20-year MTA veteran's training and his safety record and the last time he had used his cellphone.
NTSB officials will continue their investigation in New York for several more days, then return to Washington to analyze what they found. A final report could take as much as a year to complete, Weener said.
With Nicole Fuller, William Murphy, and Alfonso A. Castillo
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Updated: December 3, 2013 6:05 PM
By KEVIN DEUTSCH,EMILY NGO AND ELLEN YAN [email protected]
Photo credit: Charles Eckert | Emergency workers carry Metro-North engineer William Rockefeller away from the train derailment site in the Bronx. (Dec. 1, 2013)
The engineer of the derailed Metro-North train caught himself nodding at the controls before the train started to veer off its tracks and crashed in the Bronx, a rail union official told The Associated Press Tuesday.
Union leader Anthony Bottalico said that William Rockefeller "caught himself, but he caught himself too late," according to the AP. Bottalico said Rockefeller told him he "nodded," akin to a momentary lapse while driving a car.
A law enforcement source earlier Tuesday told Newsday that the engineer told investigators he was "in a daze" just before the crash, oblivious to the train picking up speed as it shot into a treacherous curve.
PHOTOS: Metro-North train derailment
VIDEO: Watch aerial footage of derailment
MORE: Complete coverage
Investigators have found no problems so far with the signal system or brakes on the Metro-North train that derailed on Sunday, killing four people, an official with the National Transportation Board said Tuesday afternoon.
Alcohol tests also came back negative on each of the train crew members -- the engineer, a conductor and three assistant conductors, NTSB officials said. The drug test results were not in.
Rockefeller could not recall any of his actions until just before the 82 mph train careened off the tracks in a 30 mph zone, said the source, who described the engineer as "somewhere between being asleep with his eyes open and just being spaced out."
"He admitted he was not attentive at that time," the source said. "He appears to have drifted off into this kind of trance. It's similar to what might occur when someone has been driving for a long period, staring at the road, and loses focus for a time.
"In other words, he was there, but not there."
Rockefeller has been put "out of service without pay," the MTA said.
As investigators examined the engineer's performance, authorities have been clearing the crash scene and trying to restore not just normal service along the Hudson Line but confidence in Metro-North's safety.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that more than 98 percent of its regular Hudson Line service has been restored in time for Wednesday's morning commute, with service running on just one of set of rails while repairs continue on the other two tracks, which have much more damage. About 800 feet of tracks built, debris cleared and spilled fuel vacuumed up before it leaked into the Hudson and Harlem rivers, he said.
The report on what happened in the crash won't be finished for weeks.
But based on Rockefeller's own statements, investigators believe he may have zoned out or fallen asleep, which would explain why he did not hit the brakes until seconds before the derailment, the source said.
NTSB board member Earl Weener declined to divulge information from interviews of crew members but said train operator, a 15-year Metro-North employee, has been an engineer for 10 years of them.
He has been on the Poughkeepsie-Manhattan route full time since Nov. 17, with a typical work day lasting nine hours over two round trips, Weener said.
Sunday, the engineer started work shortly after 5 a.m., the second day of his work week, and the previous shift was another "routine" day on the job, the NTSB official said.
"There's every indication he would have had time to get full restorative sleep," Weener said.
He said data from Rockefeller's cell phone has not yet been analyzed, but the law enforcement source said investigators do not believe the engineer was using it at the time of the crash.
As investigators zero in on the Rockefeller's actions, they're looking closely at several angles, the source said. That includes the engineer's work logs and schedule to determine if he was getting the proper amount of time off between runs; when he last slept; any medications he may be taking; and health conditions that may have affected his performance.
Rockefeller, 46, of Germantown, told first responders he had applied the brakes but they did not work, the source said. He then tried to "dump" them, which is similar to pulling a car's emergency brake, the source said.
Bottalico, head of the union representing the Metro-North crew, has called Rockefeller diligent and competent and that he was traumatized by the derailment. Rockefeller had been treated and released Sunday from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.
Four passengers were killed and scores injured when cars in the Poughkeepsie train to Manhattan shot off the tracks and skidded to the water's edge at 7:20 a.m.
Bronx prosecutors, along with the NYPD and MTA police, are conducting a separate probe into the crash and will determine whether losing focus or sleeping at the train's controls amounts to criminal recklessness or negligence, the law enforcement source said.
NTSB investigators expect to finish interviewing the engineer on Wednesday.
Cuomo called the engineer's inattentive state at the head of a train a "gross deviation" and said he will be disciplined.
"Certainly, we want to make sure that that operator is disciplined in an appropriate way," he told reporters at an unrelated event. "There is such a gross deviation from the norm, that there may be other agencies that also want to take a look at his behavior in operating the train. Obviously, he has his own legal rights. I understand he has a legal counsel . . . But that amount of speed is certainly unjustifiable."
The governor said he also spoke to the head of MTA Tuesday and directed the agency to implement a "safety stand-down" in which all employees must participate in safety briefings.
Without hurting service, workers will attend meetings to take a fresh look at what they do and discuss ways of improving safety, an MTA source said. It's a way to reinforce the culture at work, not just the rule book, the source said.
"The safety precautions will be redoubled and let's get the tracks up and running," Cuomo told reporters.
On Monday, Weener said a preliminary analysis of the two "event recorders" shows the seven-car train being pushed by a locomotive was traveling at 60 mph two minutes before the crash but sped up to 82 mph as it went into the curve.
The brakes were applied about five seconds before the 5:54 a.m. train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Terminal stopped moving at 7:20 a.m. Cars derailed about 100 feet north of the Spuyten Duyvil station -- ejecting some passengers and nearly plunging into the Harlem River, Weener said.
Using the brakes at that time was "very late in the game" to try to slow down for the curve, said Weener, who is leading the investigation. The train made nine stops before the derailment and there were no problems with the brakes at those times, he said.
Why the train was going faster than the 70 mph limit before the curve is "the question we need to answer," Weener said.
The NTSB investigation parallels the criminal one from local authorities.
This is routinely done in fatal transit accidents in case district attorney officials determine a crime was committed. The NTSB cannot file criminal charges.
The law enforcement source said subpoenas have been issued for the train driver's cellphone records, blood samples, drug and alcohol test results and other evidence.
The Bronx district attorney's spokesman Steve Reed would not confirm a criminal probe, saying "we're monitoring the investigation by the NTSB and we are part of several agencies involved."
The four people killed were Donna L. Smith, 54, a paralegal from Newburgh; James G. Lovell, 58, a network television technician from Cold Spring; James M. Ferrari, 59, of Montrose; and Ahn Kisook, 35, a pediatric nurse from Queens.
Investigators are still gathering and assessing data, including footage from a surveillance camera that has been sent to a lab in Washington, D.C., to be enhanced. The video, provided by the MTA, was taken from a nearby bridge and shows "flashes followed by a cloud of dust" as the train hit the electrified third rail, Weener said.
Weener has declined to reveal what he told investigators, who plan to talk to other crew members in the coming days.
The law enforcement source said Rockefeller's statements would be compared with information from the train's data recorders.
"The data tells the story of how this happened," the source said. "It corroborates or debunks."
Investigators are looking at the 20-year MTA veteran's training and his safety record and the last time he had used his cellphone.
NTSB officials will continue their investigation in New York for several more days, then return to Washington to analyze what they found. A final report could take as much as a year to complete, Weener said.
With Nicole Fuller, William Murphy, and Alfonso A. Castillo
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