NJ Transit promotes safety at rail crossing
stansr...@gmail.com
(The following story by Sharon Leff appeared on the Red Bank Hub
website on July 16.)
RED BANK, N.J. — After issuing 67 tickets to pedestrians for illegal
crossings at the Red Bank Train Station in 2007, NJ Transit officials
are aiming to lower the number of violations and to keep customers
safe, spokesman Joe Dee said.
NJ Transit police officers handed out fliers at the Red Bank Train
Station and talked with passengers about the importance of careful
crossing, following safety improvements made at 33 rail stations at
the end of last year.
Officers were present June 26 for about three hours during the peak
morning travel time to reinforce safety regulations about crossing the
train tracks, Dee said.
A ticket for pedestrians who cross illegally is $54, plus court costs;
a ticket for a vehicle that goes around the gates while they are down
ranges from $50 to $200.
"[The fliers were] to reinforce the message to pay attention and obey
the rules," Dee said. "And sometimes when an officer's there, handing
you a flier, it's just a good reminder. And I can tell you, we picked
stations where there had been a high number of pedestrian-crossing
violations, and [Red Bank] was one of them."
Dee said some passengers stopped to talk with police about proper
behavior regarding trains, and fliers were also left on the seats of
the trains, so when riders boarded, they would find the available
information.
"The whole idea is to remind people that those gates are operating for
their safety," Dee said.
Officers also spoke to passengers at the Walnut Street station in
Montclair, which had a high number of pedestriancrossing violations.
There have been several fatalities at the Red Bank train station, the
most recent on Dec. 31, when a 20-year-old Middletown man was struck
and killed by a train near the station. A North Jersey Coastline
(NJCL) train heading to Long Branch hit and killed Joseph Hardwood at
about 11:30 p.m. Dec. 31, just west of the station, according to an NJ
Transit spokesman, who added that the engineer of the train observed a
person lying on the tracks ahead and immediately applied the emergency
brakes and sounded the horn but was unable to stop the train in time.
A similar incident occurred in September 2007, when an unidentified
adult male was hit and killed by an NJCL train bound for Penn Station
in New York.
Dee said the police presence and the fliers were not in response to an
unusual number of injuries or deaths, but rather "where we've ticketed
people and where they're taking risks."
In 2007, NJ Transit completed a Customer Safety Fencing Program that
cost about $3 million. The fencing is meant to guide departing
commuters as they leave the platform.
"We will track some of this, and definitely our police department will
remain vigilant and keep up their enforcement efforts throughout the
system," Dee said.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
ben...@ble.org
http://www.ble.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=22924
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Anna.Ma...@gmail.com
wrote:
> NJ Transit promotes safety at rail crossing
> Dee said some passengers stopped to talk with police about proper
> behavior regarding trains, and
>
> fliers were also left on the seats of the trains,
>
> so when riders boarded, they would find the available information.
>
> There have been several fatalities at the Red Bank train station, the
> most recent on Dec. 31, when a 20-year-old Middletown man was struck
> and killed by a train near the station. A North Jersey Coastline
> (NJCL) train heading to Long Branch hit and killed Joseph Hardwood at
> about 11:30 p.m. Dec. 31, just west of the station, according to an NJ
> Transit spokesman, who added that the engineer of the train observed a
> person lying on the tracks ahead and immediately applied the emergency
> brakes and sounded the horn but was unable to stop the train in time.
>
> A similar incident occurred in September 2007, when an unidentified
> adult male was hit and killed by an NJCL train bound for Penn Station
> in New York.
In other words, the fliers forgot to mention suicide was illegal too.