The woman who died in Thursday's Hoboken train crash had just dropped her 1-year-old daughter off at day care and was reportedly on her way to Manhattan to search for a new apartment when she was killed in the station.
Officials confirmed that Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, was (so far) the sole fatality resulting from yesterday's devastating crash, which injured over 100 others and caused extensive damage to the Hoboken New Jersey transit station after a train failed to stop and allegedly "flew through the air" before careening into the station during the busy morning commute.
De Kroon's mother, Sueli Bittar, described her as "very, very happy" in an interview with the Times, telling the paper she had worked as a lawyer and was married to a Dutch man. The couple had moved to New Jersey earlier this year.
De Kroon had worked in Brazil at the legal department of SAP, a software company, before relocating to the U.S. "She was dropping off the daughter," daycare director Carlos Magner told NBC. "We had a good talk for like a minute. And she said she was in a rush."
As the train barreled into the Hoboken station, part of the ceiling was knocked loose and fatally struck de Kroon where she had been standing, according to the NY Post.
The train engineer involved in the crash that killed de Kroon has been identified as 48-year-old Thomas Gallagher of Morris Plains, N.J. At a press conference yesterday, Governor Chris Christie noted that Gallagher had been cooperative with crash investigators, and NBC NY noted there was no record of him having prior medical problems, criminal history, or other infractions.
"We were thrown off our feet. The train just didn’t stop," one commuter who had been on the train told the Times. "It just kept going and going and going."
Grieving friends of de Kroon remembered her as a happy mother with high hopes for her family's future. “She and her husband married several years ago and they spent a long time fostering a beautiful relationship,” a former classmate of de Kroon's told the Daily News. “They recently made the decision to have a child and I know that was really big for them. When the baby arrived it was hugely important to Fabiola." De Kroon's family is currently making plans to have her body returned to Brazil in preparation for her funeral.
