Teaching Student Maimed In Hoboken Train Crash Gets $475K Payout

HOBOKEN, NJ — When Pace University teaching student Megan McGuinness goes in front of her class of young learners, there’s a question that they sometimes ask the 24-year-old: “What’s the matter with your face?”

This and other “psychological and physical damages” are the reasons why McGuinness – the “first Hoboken train crash case to settle” - will receive a $475,000 payout from Metro-North Commuter Railroad, her attorney said.

McGuinness was aboard an ill-fated NJ Transit train on Sept. 29, 2016, when it crashed into Hoboken Terminal. The collision killed one woman – 34-year-old Hoboken mother Fabiola Bittar De Kroon – and injured 114 others.

During the crash, McGuinness’s lip was torn and left hanging from her face, which has left her dealing with multiple surgeries and PTSD from the “horrific accident,” attorney Christopher Musmanno of Denville said.

According to Musmanno:

“Ms. McGuinness can tell you what it was like when the lights suddenly went out and the train derailed and crashed through an interior wall of the train station… She was violently thrown in various directions resulting in severe, irreparable facial and psychological injuries including a laceration to her right lower lip that completely ripped through the skin and muscle, leaving her lip hanging from her face while bleeding profusely.”

McGuinness subsequently filed a lawsuit against NJ Transit and Metro-North Commuter Railroad, which was settled on April 10 for $475,000 before going to trial, Musmanno said.

Metro-North contracts with NJ Transit to run service on multiple train lines west of the Hudson River crossing. McGuinness boarded the ill-fated train in Pearl River, New York at a Metro-North station, her attorney said.

Patch reached out to NJ Transit and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which administrates Metro-North, seeking a statement about the settlement. Both agencies declined to comment.

• See related article: 1 Year After Hoboken Train Crash: How Has NJ Transit Improved Safety?

‘NO AMOUNT OF MONEY WILL TAKE AWAY THE SCAR’

On the day of the crash, McGuinness was headed to Pace University in New York City, where she was enrolled as a student with dreams of entering the childhood education field, her attorney said.

But 100 stitches and two major surgeries later, McGuinness now finds herself with no muscle control on the right side of her face. When she teaches, her young students often ask about her scars and drooling problem, NJ.com reported.

“She has to stand in front of first and second graders... who ask what's the matter with your face," Musmanno said. "It hasn't affected her ability to work because she's such a tough kid. She says she was involved in a bad accident."

Was the settlement fair? Musmanno offered Patch the following statement:

“A monetary settlement is theoretically supposed to put a person in the position they would have been in had the accident never occurred, so to that extent I do not think it was fair because no amount of money will take away the scar that Megan sees every day she looks at herself in the mirror or the dribble that occurs every time she eats or drinks. But the law and this case in its crudest sense through money has made her whole and the settlement is fair and reasonable."

The family of the crash’s sole fatality - Fabiola Bittar de Kroon – filed a separate wrongful death suit against NJ Transit in June 2017.

• See related article: Family Of Woman Killed In Train Crash Will Sue NJ Transit

WHO WILL MAKE THE PAYOUT?

Although the crash involved NJ Transit train #1614 and NJ Transit employees, since McGuinness boarded in Pearl River, New York, it will likely be Metro-North that makes the $475,000 payout, Musmanno said.

The attorney offered the following explanation:

“Only one attorney filed an answer for both NJ Transit and Metro-North. However, as I understand it there is an internal agreement between Metro-North and NJ Transit. It depends upon where the passenger boards the train. In this case, Megan would be considered a Metro-North passenger because she boarded the train in New York at a Metro-North station. I believe, therefore, that Metro-North will bear the settlement cost even though the accident occurred as a result of the negligence of a NJ Transit employee. For purposes of the litigation, they were one entity. However, for purposes of payment as an agreement between the two companies, I believe Metro-North will actually be issuing the settlement check.”

WHAT CAUSED THE CRASH?

In February, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released their findings on the likely cause of the crash: an engineer’s untreated sleep apnea.

According to the NTSB, NJ Transit failed to adequately screen and treat its engineers for sleep apnea, a chronic and ongoing condition that can cause excessive daytime sleepiness. Investigators found that the ill-fated train's engineer, Thomas Gallagher, suffered from undiagnosed sleep apnea, a condition that is not rare among transportation workers, some experts say. Metro-North recently found that as many as 11.6 percent of its engineers in the New York City suburbs may suffer from the disorder, the Associated Press stated.

The absence of technology on the tracks to automatically stop the trains was also a factor in the crash, the NTSB stated. In addition, the train may have been going between 20 and 30 miles per hour when it collided with the station; the speed limit at the station is 10 miles per hour.

• See related article: Hoboken Train Crash Likely Caused By Sleep Apnea: NTSB
• See related article: NJ Transit Train May Have Been Speeding During Fatal Hoboken Crash

Federal inspectors also found several alleged safety violations at Hoboken Terminal just months before the crash, including failure to equip trains with required emergency equipment, crew members failing to perform required brake tests on trains, and trains stopping too close to each other.

• See related article: Inspectors Found Safety Issues Prior To Fatal Hoboken Train Crash

TESTING FOR SLEEP APNEA

In August 2017, officials with the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration withdrew a proposed rule that would have required testing for obstructive sleep apnea, NPR reported.

Instead, transportation agencies such as Metro-North and NJ Transit will be allowed to voluntarily conduct their own testing for sleep apnea, NBC New York stated.

Safety experts have criticized the decision, alleging that it may place millions of lives at risk, the Associated Press reported.

• See related article: Feds Eschew Test For Sleep Disorder Linked To Hoboken Train Crash

Sleep apnea is also believed to have one of the factors that contributed to a deadly train derailment in December 2013 on Metro-North's Hudson Valley Line. A post-accident sleep study by the National Transportation Safety Board after that crash found that the engineer, William Rockefeller, suffered from severe sleep apnea.

Metro-North started testing its engineers for sleep apnea in 2014.

• See related article: Metro North to Test All Train Engineers for Sleep Apnea

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Photos: NTSB (Hoboken Terminal, Sept. 29, 2016)