Hoboken Train Accident Witness Describes Stepping Over Dead Body When Rushing to Help Crash Victims

 
William Blaine was getting his coffee inside New Jersey Transit's Hoboken train station on Thursday morning when a commuter train derailed and crashed into the terminal, killing at least one and injuring over an estimated 100 people.

Speaking to ABC-7 in New York on Thursday, the engineer – who runs freight trains for New Jersey's Southern Railroad – said the crash caused a sound so loud, his first instinct was that a bomb had gone off.

"All I remember just hearing is 'kaboom' and it sounded like a bomb," he recalled. "If you came out and didn't see the train, you would have sworn it was a bomb. "

But when he turned around and went to look, he saw what had happened.

Hoboken Train Accident Witness Describes Stepping Over Dead Body When Rushing to Help Crash Victims| Personal Tragedy, Real People Stories
Hoboken Train Accident Witness Describes Stepping Over Dead Body When Rushing to Help Crash Victims| Personal Tragedy, Real People Stories


"It was so shocking," he said. "People just ran and starred at first because you don't believe it happened. And then you wake up and realized you have to help people."



Running to the scene, Blaine tried to help some people out of the train. Amongst the debris were people laying on the ground.

"I didn't realize when I ran, I stepped over a body," he said. "I back up and it was a dead woman."

Blaine also saw many people with "cuts and bruises" – including a man with a "gash in his head," a woman with "a gash" and another man whose leg appeared to be broken. "He was trying to get up – it was crazy," Blaine said.

Many people in the station jumped to the aid of the victims. "It was like you were a family," Blaine explained. "Everybody – creed and color – ran and tried to help. There was crying. It was sad, man."

Hoboken Train Accident Witness Describes Stepping Over Dead Body When Rushing to Help Crash Victims| Personal Tragedy, Real People Stories
Hoboken Train Accident Witness Describes Stepping Over Dead Body When Rushing to Help Crash Victims| Personal Tragedy, Real People Stories


They weren't able to stay on the scene long, though. "There was electrical wire and water running, and the ceiling was about to cave in because all the beams were broken," Blaine said, explaining why he and some of the other crowd fled the scene. "It's crazy."

According to a NJ Transit News release, the crash took place at 8:45 a.m., when a Pascack Valley line departure from Spring Valley operating to Hoboken struck the Hoboken Terminal building on track 5. It also said initial reports indicated "multiple critical injuries."

Michael Larson, an NJ Transit machinist, told PEOPLE much of the roof of the first car was smashed down to the tops of the seats. He said the crash was not the result of a bomb, and he describes the crash as "catastrophic."

Hoboken Train Accident Witness Describes Stepping Over Dead Body When Rushing to Help Crash Victims| Personal Tragedy, Real People Stories
Hoboken Train Accident Witness Describes Stepping Over Dead Body When Rushing to Help Crash Victims| Personal Tragedy, Real People Stories


Kirby Fisher, 31, was in the first car of the train that hit the station.

"I was in the first car. It didn't stop," Fisher tells PEOPLE. "When we hit, the ceiling came in and people were screaming all around us.... People were saying we should stay on the train but I just wanted to get out. I climbed out a window on the right side of the train."

Fisher added, "I can't believe this happened. I hope everyone's okay."

In a press conference Wednesday morning, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said there was no indication the crash was anything other than an crash at this stage and that the cause was being investigated.

"You can see from all the destruction at the station that this was obviously a train traveling at a high rate of speed," he said, adding that the male conductor was being treated at the hospital.