NEW YORK _ The engineer who was driving the Long Island Rail Road train that crashed through a barrier at the end of the tracks in Brooklyn Wednesday was going faster than the speed limit in that area of Atlantic Terminal and told investigators that he can't remember the crash.
"The engineer was unable to recall striking the end of the track. He does recall entering into the station and controlling the speed of the train. And the next thing he realized was after the collision," said National Transportation Safety Board investigator Ted Turpin in a briefing Thursday at a Brooklyn hotel.
The train was going at least 10 mph, twice the speed limit, Turpin said.
The engineer, who has worked for the LIRR since 1999, was making his first trip after three days off, Turpin said.
Turpin said investigators recovered two event recorders, while a third one in the lead car is "compromised."
The crash injured more than 100 people, none of them seriously.
Around 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, the Brooklyn-bound train, which originated in Far Rockaway, crashed into a bumping block at the end of the tracks at Atlantic Terminal.
FDNY officials said the train lifted off the tracks and crashed through a small room at the station. The impact of the crash threw several commuters on the train, which was carrying about 430 passengers.
On Wednesday evening, NTSB lead investigator Jim Southworth said the agency expected to remain at the scene of the accident for up to seven days.
Investigators on Wednesday recovered two of the train's three event recorders, which Southworth said should provide data on the train's performance, including its speed, throttle and whether brakes were applied. Southworth said the data would be compared against any video that might be available of the train pulling into the terminal.
"I take that data and we look at it very closely and make determinations about its accuracy," Southworth said Wednesday.
