National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials said on Sunday one data recorder recovered so far from the New Jersey Transit commuter train that crashed in Hoboken, killing one and injuring more than 100, was not functioning on the day of the accident.  On Thursday, a commuter train smashed through a steel-and-concrete bumper and hurtled into the Hoboken station’s waiting area, killing a woman on the platform.  The locomotive’s recorder has information on train speed. NTSB vice chair T Bella Dinh-Zarr said at a Sunday news conference she was hopeful the data recorder in the cab control car in the front of the train was functional. That has yet to be recovered from the crash site.  Dinh-Zarr said the train’s engineer told investigators the train was operating properly before it crashed on Thursday morning.  Thomas Gallagher, a 29-year veteran of the railway who was injured when the train derailed, also said the train was operating at 10mph as it approached the station. He told investigators he was fully rested at the time and had no memory of the accident.  Investigators have said the conductor said he did not see anything unusual about the train’s speed.  According to federal data, meanwhile, New Jersey Transit trains have been involved in more than 150 accidents that caused more than $4.8m in damage to tracks or equipment since 2011. NJ Transit has paid more than $500,000 to settle safety violations.  Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) information shows that NJ Transit has settled 183 safety violations – ranging from employee drug and alcohol use to violations of railroad operating rules or practices – since 1 January 2011. The settlement payments include about $70,000 for more than a dozen safety violations in 2014 and 2015. Statistics for the current year are not yet available.  Months before Thursday’s crash, federal rail officials found dozens of violations during an audit focusing on NJ Transit’s safety and operations, a US official confirmed on Saturday.  The official, who was familiar with the railroad administration audit, spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation.  The FRA began an audit in June after noticing an increase in rail incidents and found “dozens of safety violations” that needed to be fixed immediately, the official said.  The commuter rail agency was fined as a result of the audit, the official said, adding that federal agencies are continuing to work with the railroad to ensure compliance with federal rail safety guidelines.  There were 25 accidents in 2015 and 10 in the first seven months of 2016, but none caused injuries or death, federal data showed. Most of the incidents occurred at low speeds and more than half were in train yards.
NTSB officials hope second device, which records train speed, will be found as investigation continues into crash that killed one and injured more than 100