A NJ Transit train passes through the grade crossing at Chelsea and Fifth avenues in Long Branch, one of four high-priority locations identified by the agency and the state Department of Transportation that will receive safety improvements to prevent trespassing and accidental deaths. KRISTEN DALTON Busy railroad grade crossings throughout the state are being targeted in a campaign to upgrade safety and safeguard lives, officials with the state Department of Transportation (DOT) and New Jersey Transit announced on Feb. 8.
The agencies are teaming up to prevent accidental train incidents like the one described by a railroad engineer in a video posted to YouTube by NJ Transit as part of the educational initiative of the Rail Safety Blueprint Report released last week.
“One moment you’re running a train, the next moment you see something quick, something get in front of your train. Then you hear a thump. At that point, you’re wondering what could it have been, but you know what you saw,”states engineer Melvan Caban.
The video uses footage filmed at four high-risk crossings, including the Matawan Aberdeen station, which was identified by NJ Transit police as an area with frequent trespassers.
According to the Rail Safety Blueprint Report, during the last two years, 81 incidents resulting in 51 deaths in the state have occurred at grade crossings.
The report lists a range of initiatives designed for quick implementation to promote safety.
Recommendations in the report primarily revolve around three complementary safety spheres: engineering, education and enforcement. Twelve high-priority action items are slated to be carried out or at least started within a year or, in some cases, much sooner.
In the area of enforcement, NJ Transit police will conduct high-profile enforcement actions at targeted high-risk locations to enforce the laws that prohibit ducking under crossing gates or other acts to disregard warning devices.
The report also lists a dozen safety efforts that NJ Transit has started or committed to since the formation of the oversight committee in November.
Locally, the Long Branch crossing at Chelsea and Fifth avenues is one of four locations listed as high priority that will receive new or additional safety measures to prevent trespassing.
“When we say trespassing, we’re talking about people walking along tracks, which is against the law, crossing railroad tracks at areas that are not protected by safety devices at grade crossings, as well as people trespassing by ducking under the gate at locations that have all the safety devices,” said Joe Dee, a spokesman for NJ Transit.
Two of the three other priority crossings are: two on the Morris and Essex lines and one at the Bergen County line in Garfield, where three teenagers were killed and a fourth was injured on Oct. 3.
The Safety Along Railroads Leadership Oversight Committee and three subcommittees were formed in the wake of the tragedies and represent the work of approximately 30 federal and state officials and other stakeholders who formed the action plan that was released on the Feb. 8.
“They’re going to have to do an analysis to see what the conditions are. Every crossing has different kinds of particular features, so they’ll have to look and see what is the best way to prevent trespassing there. It could be a whole range of things,” Dee said.
He said additional gates, fencing and signage are among the measures that can be taken to deter trespassing and raise awareness .
A “Second Train Coming” sign will be installed at the Garfield location, one of 32 stations throughout the system that have two tracks at its crossing.
“That’s where that ‘Second Train Coming’ sign is so important. Imagine you’re waiting behind the gate and the train is starting to pull out of the station but the gate remains down. You’re thinking the train is moving away, I’m going to duck under the gate, but you can’t see there’s a train com- ing in the other direction. It’s proven to be tragic,” explained Dee.
According to Dee, there are no cost estimates as yet for the action plan, but some installation items will involve capital expenses, like the warning signs and gate skirts.
“Others are rather small in cost and hopefully big in result,” he said.
“We’ll see. Does this have an impact? Are people watching it? Do they stop when they see the lights go on on that sign? We’ll be looking for that to measure if this is something that we want to invest in more. If these prove to be effective in making people think twice about ducking under a gate or walking around it, that would be great.”
At a Nov 30 workshop, the subcommittee members identified a number of key actions to be implemented within the next 12 months, including an aggressive public awareness campaign, expansion of NJ Transit’s Rail School Safety Program and updating the N.J. Driver’s Education Manual to include information on pedestrian and vehicular safety at rail crossings.
Aimed at increasing public awareness, the NJ Transit YouTube video features testimony by another railroad engineer who was conducting his train when a fatal accident happened.
Veteran engineer Tom Haas said he was the last to see a victim walking along the tracks when he couldn’t stop his train in time.
“It was a regular nice day like this and I was running along and I happen to come across — there was a young kid — he was in middle school, he was wearing an iPod and he was walking along the tracks. I’m blowing the horn, applied the emergency brake, and all you’re doing is wishing he would just step out of the way,” Haas recalled of the fatal incident.
In addition to educational videos, the short-term action plan includes enhanced engineering safety treatments at grade crossings, expanded resources for the existing rail safety diagnostic program, and giving additional consideration to Safe Routes to School grant applications for projects near rail crossings and rail lines.
There are 312 crossings that NJ Transit trains pass throughout the state, four of which will be the first to implement new and additional safety measures. Dee said it remains to be seen how many more crossings will follow.
“It’s a way to target resources where we hope they’ll do the most good, and then we’ll move on from there to others. Let’s find the ones that are the biggest problems and make the best use of our resources,” he said.
The Rail Safety Blueprint Report can be accessed online at www.njtransit.com under the 2012 News Releases tab.