Investigators say the New Jersey Transit commuter train which crashed last week killing one person was travelling twice the allowed speed just before it crashed into buffers.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it somehow sped up as it entered Hoboken station exceeding the 10mph limit, according to the data recorder and video footage from a forward-facing camera.
Just a minute before the crash, it was travelling at 8mph but then inexplicably increased speed to 21 mph.
The train engineer then hit the emergency brake just moments before the train crashed.
The train left the track and came to a halt in the station’s waiting area.
Apart from the fatality, more than 100 commuters were injured.
Investigators gave no reason for why the train may have picked up speed on its approach into the station.
The train engineer, Thomas Gallagher, earlier said he had no recollection of the crash.
The station remains closed and the NTSB said the investigation could take up to a year before concluding.
