Fighting back tears today, Weatherhead-Saul recounted her harrowing experience aboard the NJ Transit train.
Jamie Weatherhead-Saul speaks with reporters after Thursday's fatal train crash in Hoboken. HOBOKEN -- Jamie Weatherhead-Saul had just sent a text message as her train was pulling into the Hoboken terminal this morning. The Wood-Ridge resident was standing near the train car's door preparing to disembark -- a standard practice for rail riders as a locomotive begins to slow down.
It never did.
Fighting back tears at times, Weatherhead-Saul recounted her harrowing experience aboard the NJ Transit train that crashed into the Hoboken terminal at around 8:45 a.m., killing one and leaving more than 100 injured.
"Just a second before I was texting...It just happened. It was a second's notice and everybody was just on the ground screaming," the crash survivor said from the corner of River Street and Newark Avenue.
"In that moment, that was life or death," Weatherhead-Saul added. "There was no indication of whether the train was going to actually stop."
Gov. Chris Christie said this afternoon the train was traveling at a high rate of speed when it crashed, killing a 34-year-old woman from Hoboken.
In the minutes that followed the horrific accident, police and first responders began diverting hundreds of commuters away from the normally-busy transportation hub.
A police officer stationed at the intersection of First and Hudson streets took to a megaphone at 9 a.m. and announced there had been a "mass casualty incident" at the terminal and directed all foot traffic to Washington Street.
With sirens blaring, emergency service vehicles raced down Washington Street, passing hundreds of onlookers suddenly scrambling for alternative means into Manhattan. Meanwhile, dozens of commuters -- seemingly all of them looking down at their cell phones -- waited in line at the corner of First Street for bus service to Manhattan.
Back at River Street and Newark Avenue, a shaken Weatherhead-Saul painted a descriptive picture of the scene inside an "extremely packed" train car after it crashed into the station.
"I guess the train conductor himself, his face was covered in blood. There were people whose faces were sliced opened, eyes swollen, gashes to their face. A lot of twisted knees or ankles. My biggest fear was that someone was dead in the front, but it looked like everyone managed to get or get some kind of help. A lot of the injuries were bloody - just bleeding.
"I'm just shaken," she added. "I got some pain from the impact, but nothing in comparison to what people are probably feeling."