newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ALICIA CRUZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The editor/publisher of the Cliffview Pilot.com wrote a stinging editorial in relation to the recent spike in 'Trespasser Fatalities" that claimed the lives of four people on New Jersey rails recently.

Editor Jerry DeMarco said, "I'm sorry, NJ Transit. ‘Their bad' just isn't good enough," and added, "If I hear one more blame-the-victim quote about these deaths, I just might lay down on the tracks myself."

DeMarco seems to be referring to the rash of pedestrian versus train accidents that officials have referred to as "trespasser fatalities" after three people were killed by Amtrak Trains and one by a New Jersey Transit train.

The latest fatality occurred outside the Hamilton train station August 29 when an unidentified person was struck by an Amtrak train, The Trentonian reported.

Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole told The Star-Ledger that The Acela 2213 to Washington D.C., going 135 mph, struck the individual on the express tracks just after 1 p.m.

New Jersey Transit and Amtrak officials expected train delays to be between 10 to 30 minutes as a result of the accident. Two of the four tracks were still open at the accident site, but the Princeton and Hamilton train stations were closed to westbound trains as the investigation continued, said NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel.

Last year's total number of train fatalities was 29. NJ Transit said it typically sees about 24 "trespasser fatalities" each year, and the majority of these are suicides, according to Stessel.

But DeMarco isn't buying that. He suggests officials build better fences or perhaps post a part-time security guard, but he says blaming the victim is just plain wrong.

"What about creating mini stations where someone can watch security cameras and dispatch guards to areas suddenly occupied by trespassers," asks DeMarco.

"Surely someone in that massive bureaucracy of yours has the gray matter to devise at least a whiff of a scent of a possibility of a solution," DeMarco said. "These deaths aren't on random stretches of track. They are at those areas that are most accessible."

The August 29 accident occurred five days after another person was struck and killed by an Acela Amtrak train near the Hamilton station. Cole told The Times of Trenton that the woman was struck around 8:15 p.m. by the Boston from Washington, D.C. bound train.

Her death was the third pedestrian/Amtrak related accident to occur in the area since March.

On March 11 an Acela killed another person, also at the Hamilton station. Then on July 27 a woman was struck and killed by a southbound Acela train just before rush hour.

A Feb. 3 accident involving a man who was struck and killed between the Hamilton and Princeton Junction stations was not included in the count since that accident involved a NJ Transit train.