Dozens of things ran through Vinnie Massaro’s head when a phone call Monday morning told him a train had derailed in south Secaucus.
Although Massaro is the coordinator for the Secaucus Office Emergency Management, he was getting ready for his private sector job as the manager of a local eatery.
"I kept thinking that this was rush hour," he said. "I kept wondering what kind of train it was. Was it a work train or a commuter train? And were there a lot of people hurt?"
For Massaro, this was the third train incident in the last 10 years, and he recalled the last two resulting in significant injuries. A collision of two trains in February 1996 killed three people. Then, a major derailment in November 1996 left hundreds injured.
Massaro rushed out of his house with his head full of things he had to do. He did not know any of the details.
"I hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst," he said.
The upshot
Luckily, no one was critically injured in Monday’s crash.
A Manhattan-bound NJ Transit Train had lost a wheel while coming across the Hackensack Bridge from Kearny around 7:30 a.m., and two cars had jumped the track. Earlier, engineers had reported heat sensors showing an increase in temperature. But a check during the train’s stop in Newark had found nothing wrong.
Massaro was among the dozens of Secaucus residents rushing to the scene of the accident. Since he was head of the local OEM, he had to stop at that office first.
"I had to get the mobile command unit up and running," he said.
But he kept thinking about the last two crashes and the people who might be hurt and knew he had to hurry.
Deputy Fire Chief Raymond Ciecuich also rushed towards the site of the reported derailment.
Ciecuich also was thinking of the last train crash, and how he arrived at the scene in 1996 to see a pregnant woman hobbling along the tracks with the upturned commuter cars piled up behind her like fallen dominos.
He hoped the latest disaster would not be as bad, although as he rushed there in his fire vehicle, he prepared himself for the worst. He believed he would find tragedy when he arrived.
Ciecuich and Massaro were not alone.
A very remote part of Secaucus
From throughout Secaucus, Jersey City and other sections Northern New Jersey, emergency vehicles were rushing to the remote corner of Secaucus. Both Massaro and Ciecuich could hear the continued reports rasping over the radio as EMS workers arrived on the scene reporting people strewn along the tracks, some complaining of injuries. Both men learned that the train had jumped off the tracks in a remote section of Secaucus between Laurel Hill (sometimes called Fraternity Rock) and the historic mound called Snake Hill. As both men drove their vehicles through the park, they were confronted with lawns and ball fields, not train wrecks, one more deceptive element of the landscape.
Even people familiar with Secaucus do not know much about the remote area beyond Laurel Hill Park, that wilderness of wetlands where Penhorn Creek rendezvous with the Hackensack River along the border between Secaucus and Jersey City. Because the area is unencumbered by previous development, it has become a thoroughfare for various transportation nodes, rail lines and the New Jersey Turnpike passing through a corridor of reeds.
Rescue operations were hindered, said 1st Ward Councilman Michael Grecco, by the limited access to the site. Emergency vehicles could only access this space from a narrow road at the end of the park, a road constructed originally to service the rails and make repairs to the Turnpike. Although long ago co-opted by off-road enthusiasts who make use of its dusty byways for weekend motorcycle and other races, for larger vehicles like the OEM mobile command center, ambulances and fire vehicles, it is a roller coaster of mud and dust, rising sharply, falling abruptly, so full of angles and twists that even experienced drivers in no need to get to a train disaster would approach it cautiously.
"We had some trouble getting the ambulances up the incline near the tracks," Massaro said.
Location, location, location
As Massaro and Ciecuich were heading for the site, Grecco was also making his way there and had to explain the circumstances to reporters.
Grecco told reporters near the playground area of Laurel Hill Park that the biggest issue was the remoteness of the location and the limited roads to get there.
"Had this happened a little further up, we might not have been able to get emergency vehicles to the site at all," he said, noting the access roads installed by NJ Transit for the construction of the Secaucus Transfer Station were kept in place, despite original plans to remove them. "That was something I did after the first crash in 1996. Secaucus insisted that the roads be kept there in case something like this happened."
EMS personnel were on the scene hard at work checking injuries when Ciecuich and Massaro arrived, many of the estimated 1,200 people standing along the side of the tracks, stunned by the tilt of the two cars. Ex-Fire Chief George Heflich said he arrived around 8:15 a.m. and found most of the people being tended to already.
Injured passengers were transferred out of the site by dirt road through Laurel Hill Park. More than a dozen people were injured enough to need transportation to area hospitals. Most of these, according to William Dauster, spokesperson for Meadowlands Hospital, suffered typical injuries associated with crashes such as scrapes and bruises from contact with metal inside the cars, as well as symptoms of whiplash.
"One person had a broken arm," Massaro said. "I think another person had a broken arm or leg. The rest were cuts and bruises."
Two people complained of chest pains, Dauster said. One was admitted to Meadowlands Hospital, the other to Jersey City Medical Center.
The Secaucus Fire Department, said Ciecuich, also sent an engine from the Washington Hook and Ladder company at nearby County Avenue and the fire department’s Rescue Unit.
"Mostly we helped EMS with the injured," Ciecuich said.
"EMS people took people off in stretchers," Massaro said. "The rest of the people lined up along the side of the tracks."
Ciecuich said they planned to set up rescue operations at the soon-to-be-opened Secaucus Transfer Station a few hundred yards north of the derailment site, but later chose to continue rescue operations at the location.
"Rather than move them to another location, NJ Transit decided to bring in another train and transport them to New York Penn Station," Massaro said.
EMS workers screened people boarding the train to see if anyone needed hospital care, and then one EMT rode the train into New York continuing the interviews. New York City OEM people met the train and took two more passengers for treatment.
Some of the passengers who were left to their own resources started walking north towards the Secaucus Transfer Station, about a 20-minute walk from the accident scene. Although not officially open, the transfer station is due to begin taking on local passengers on Aug. 1. Two of these people, interviewed during their walk, described the derailment as "a sudden sound of scraping followed by a loss of light" after which everything halted and they heard only silence.
The despondent engineer refused comment when asked about the wreck. Standing in the door of the locomotive, he just stared back at the crimpled cars eight cars down from him and shook his head.
Still being investigated
The cause of the derailment is being investigated, said New Jersey Transit’s executive director, George Warrington, in a statement issued later in the day. He said NJ Transit is looking into mechanical failure, but would also consider other causes, such as human error. The investigation eventually determined the accident was a combination of human and mechanical error and suspended the conductor.
The November 1996 crash was caused by cracks in the rails near the bridge over the Hackensack River.
Grecco, who is also a member of the OEM, speculated on the slant of the tracks in the area, and noted that part of the landfill over which the tracks pass may have settled.
"Even the trains running along the other track seemed to be leaning," he said.
The accident caused extensive delays for New Jersey Transit and Amtrak for much of the day, since only one track remained open to handle all the northbound and southbound train traffic. Gov. Jim McGreevey surveyed the derailment via helicopter.
Massaro said officials from NJ Transit took charge of the rescue operations right from the start.
"This crash differed in several ways from those in the past," he said. "While people involved were as well-trained, the operation was much more organized this time. Rescue vehicles went into the area one at a time, while in 1996 everybody just rushed to the scene. We had a system set up and running. NJ Transit used our command center to direct everything."
Massaro said each of the three train accidents taught rescuers more about how to conduct themselves, making this the best run operation of the three.
"We had a unified command and that made a big difference," he said.
Rescue operations also did not encounter unexpected obstacles, so everything we smoothly and for the most part, as initially planned.
"We were able to keep the dirt road into the site clear for vehicles to get in and out," he said. "No one panicked. When we got to the injured, we got them out fairly quickly. The fire department and other agencies knew what they had to do and did it well."