By Canadian Press

Mother killed in train crash had recently moved from Brazil

Sep 29, 2016 | 7:45 PM

HOBOKEN, N.J. — A woman killed when a New Jersey Transit commuter train crashed at a station where she had been waiting had recently moved to the United States from Brazil with her family.

Fabiola Bittar de Kroon was standing in a waiting area at the Hoboken station when the train, which was travelling too fast, crashed through a barrier, and she was killed by falling debris, authorities said.

De Kroon, 34, worked for the software company SAP in its legal department in Brazil until earlier this year. SAP spokesman Andy Kendzie said the company was “shaken by the news” of the crash, which injured more than 100 people. He said the company expressed its deepest condolences to de Kroon’s family and friends and to all of those affected by the “tragic event.”

Cecilia Marques, a former co-worker at a company that specialized in travel to Brazil, said she was saddened and shocked by the news of de Kroon’s death.

“I am speechless and feel like the world stopped for some moments,” Marques said. “I had the privilege to get to know and work with Fabiola for some years, and I can say she was a great, talented, big and genuine heart.”

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De Kroon, a 2011 master’s degree graduate from Florida International University’s College of Business, previously lived in Florida but was a Brazil native, according to her Facebook account.

She lived in Hoboken with her husband and young child after moving to the city when he took a job with a liquor company.

Dolf Wiemer, a former LG Electronics co-worker who lives in Brazil, said he knew the couple well and in April had visited them before they moved to the U.S. De Kroon was excited about the change and her husband’s major career move, Wiemer said.

The de Kroons, he said, were “an international couple not avoiding any adventure by even moving countries in (pursuit) of a better (life).”

“Even if this means that you have to follow your partner and have to get used to other cultures and ways of living,” he said. “It is tragic that she had to be in such a bad place at that time while pursuing their dreams of life.”

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Trimble reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writer Verena Dobnik, in New York, contributed to this story.

Megan Trimble And Dake Kang, The Associated Press