新澤西列車撞站臺事故引發安全性質疑
A runaway train ploughed into a New Jersey rail terminal on Thursday morning, killing at least one person, injuring 108 others and raising questions about the safety of the US’s second-busiest commuter railroad.
週四早晨，一輛失控火車撞上新澤西一火車站站臺，至少造成一人死亡，108人受傷，這令外界對美國第二繁忙的通勤鐵路的安全提出質疑。
The inbound train overshot the track at 8:45am and rammed the station in Hoboken, a transport hub on the west bank of the Hudson river across from Manhattan, according to New Jersey Transit. The commuter transport agency reported “multiple critical injuries” as a result of the crash, while the office of New Jersey governor Chris Christie confirmed one death.
新澤西運輸公司(New Jersey Transit)表示，這輛進站火車於上午8點45分衝出軌道，撞上霍博肯火車站站臺，霍博肯是曼哈頓對面、哈德遜河西岸的一個交通中心。這家通勤交通機構稱，事故導致“多人嚴重受傷”，新澤西州州長克里斯•克里斯蒂(Chris Christie)辦公室證實有一人死亡。
The accident came as NJ Transit, the train’s operator, is enmeshed in a political battle over transport financing. State legislators and Mr Christie have been unable to resolve differences over how to raise the state gasoline tax to invest in transport, including the more than century-old passenger rail system.
這列火車的運營商新澤西運輸公司正因交通融資陷入政治紛爭。州議員和克里斯蒂一直無法化解有關如何提高該州汽油稅以投資於交通運輸（包括擁有超過100年曆史的客運鐵路系統）的分歧。
At a news conference Mr Christie said: “The train came in at much too high a rate of speed. The question is why was that?” The engineer was hospitalised after the crash and co-operating with authorities, he said. While the crash was under investigation, “we have no indication this is anything other than a tragic accident.”
克里斯蒂在一個新聞發佈會上表示：“火車進站時速度太快。問題是原因是什麼？”他表示，事故發生後，司機受傷住院並正與當局合作。事故仍在調查之中，但“我們沒有跡象表明這不止是一起悲慘的意外事故。”
There have been persistent questions about NJ Transit’s governance since superstorm Sandy swamped the US north-east in 2012. Managers at the system, owned by the state of New Jersey, failed to move rolling stock from a rail yard threatened by the storm surge, meaning that flooding wrecked hundreds of the system’s railcars.
自從超級風暴桑迪(Sandy)於2012年登陸美國東北部地區以來，新澤西運輸公司就一直因其治理面臨質疑。該公司由新澤西州所有，其管理者未能將鐵路車輛從一個遭受風暴威脅的鐵路站場撤離，結果洪水毀壞了該公司數百輛鐵路車輛。
NJ Transit said train number 1614 had travelled to Hoboken from Spring Valley, New York, about an hour and 15 minutes north. A passenger, Jamie Weatherhead-Sal, said she was standing between the first and second cars of the train because there was not enough room inside.
新澤西運輸公司表示，這輛編號爲1614的火車從紐約春谷(Spring Valley)向北駛向霍博肯車站，大約1小時15分鐘行程。一位名叫傑米•韋瑟黑德-薩(Jamie Weatherhead-Sal)的乘客表示，她當時站在列車的第一節和第二節車廂之間，因爲車廂裏面沒有空間。
“We approached the station and the train just felt like it never stopped. It didn’t slow down,” she told WNBC-TV.
她告訴WNBC-TV：“我們抵達車站的時候，列車似乎還在行駛。它沒有減速。”
The cause of the crash has not yet been determined. The National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency, was dispatching a team from Washington to take over the investigation.
事故原因暫時沒有定論。美國國家交通運輸安全委員會(NTSB)正從華盛頓派出工作組展開調查。
