Passenger injured in New Jersey train crash describes "a scene out of a horror movie"
Laurie Zimbalardi says she can't stop reliving the near-death moments when a tree came crashing through the windshield of a New Jersey Transit River Line train she was riding Monday morning.
"When I close my eyes, all I can see is that picture of glass falling over me, being in darkness, hearing metal tearing, and the smell, I can still smell the smell," Zimbalardi said.
The train was traveling from Trenton at around 6 a.m. when it hit a tree on the tracks just north of Roebling Station in Mansfield Township. Zimbalardi, who was commuting with her boyfriend and 40 other passengers, described the incident as "a scene out of a horror movie."
"Before I knew it, I was up against a door, out of my chair," she recalled. "We just kept going, and I was waiting for the impact. We were lifted so high up that the doors were opened. We couldn't get out. Men were getting the women and little ones out, we were that high up off the ground."
Zimbalardi said she suffered a concussion, broken teeth and minor cuts. Sadly, 41-year-old train conductor Jessica Haley, a single mother of three boys, was killed in the crash.
"Oh my God, I saw her. The whole tree pushed her into our compartment. We saw her lying there," Zimbalardi said. "I didn't know she was a mom. All I can say is I give [the family] my condolences, and prayers go out to all of them."
An attorney representing Haley's relatives said the family "intends to pursue this matter to the fullest extent of the law to prevent anyone from ever suffering the same fate as Jessica."
The crash marks the second train accident Zimbalardi has been involved in within a week. Last Friday, at the same time of morning, she said she was aboard the River Line when it struck a truck in Burlington, New Jersey.
Despite her trauma, Zimbalardi says public transportation is her only option to get to her job as a dental assistant in South Philadelphia.
"It makes you realize how short life is," she said.