Pascack Valley Train Crash: Engineer Had Sleep Apnea, Attorney Says

An attorney for the engineer of the ill-fated Pascack Valley Line train that crashed into the Hoboken Terminal in September is claiming that his client’s sleep apnea disorder may have played a role in the tragedy, reports say.

Thomas Gallagher, who was the engineer aboard the train when it collided with the busy Hudson County terminal, killing a woman and injuring more than 100 others, recently learned that he had undiagnosed sleep apnea at the time of the incident, his attorney said.

The condition is 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's Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines are operated by NJTRANSIT. Metro-North started testing its engineers for sleep apnea in 2014.

SEE: Metro North to Test All Train Engineers for Sleep Apnea

Gallagher sent his test results to federal authorities on Oct. 31, his attorney said.

Although he previously stated that he had “no memory” of the crash, Gallagher now believes that his sleep apnea may have played a role in his reaction, his attorney said.

According to the National Health Institute, sleep apnea is a chronic and ongoing condition that disrupts patients' nighttime patterns.

Sleep apnea often goes undiagnosed, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

“Sleep apnea usually is a chronic (ongoing) condition that disrupts your sleep. When your breathing pauses or becomes shallow, you’ll often move out of deep sleep and into light sleep,” the NHLBI states on its website. “As a result, the quality of your sleep is poor, which makes you tired during the day. Sleep apnea is a leading cause of excessive daytime sleepiness.”

For people with sleep apnea, the combination of disturbed sleep and oxygen starvation may lead to hypertension, heart disease and mood and memory problems, the National Sleep Foundation states.

"Sleep apnea also increases the risk of drowsy driving," the NSF writes.

Killed in the 2013 train derailment were James Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring; James Ferrari, 59, of Montrose; Donna Smith, 54, of Newburgh; and Ahn Kisook, 35, of Queens. A sound and lighting designer, Lovell was headed into NYC to work on the tree at Rockefeller Center.

During the September crash in Hoboken, 34-year-old Hoboken mother Fabiola Bittar De Kroon was killed after being hit by debris on the platform while the crash's impact caused the terminal's roof to collapse, sending flying metal airborne, officials said.

Photo: National Transportation Safety Board

By Eric Kiefer (Patch Staff) and Lanning Taliaferro