NJ Transit plans effort to reduce pedestrian death toll

In an effort to reduce fatal train-pedestrian accidents, NJ Transit will increase police patrols at high-risk locations and step up public-education efforts, state transportation commissioner James Simpson said Wednesday.

The Inquirer reported last week that at least 91 pedestrians were killed by trains on NJ Transit and SEPTA lines in 2010 and 2011.

Many of those who died intended to take their own lives, often to the horror of train engineers, passengers, and bystanders. Others were crossing or walking along tracks, apparently oblivious to approaching trains.

(Those 91 deaths of people railroads describe as "trespassers" don't include seven people killed in train crashes with motor vehicles.)

A report issued Wednesday by Simpson cited 12 actions the state will take soon to try to reduce the death toll.

In addition to more police patrols and increased education efforts, the agency said it would test the effectiveness of "gate skirts" at rail crossings to keep pedestrians from ducking under crossing gates. And it will put up more safety signs at some NJ Transit rail stations.

One of the stations with the highest death tolls is the Hamilton station, where five people have been killed by Amtrak trains in the last two years, all in apparent suicides.

NJ Transit also said it would seek to include at least one rail-safety question on driver's license tests and insert safety information in state driver's manuals.

Simpson impaneled a rail-safety committee in November to examine the pedestrian safety issue after the deaths of three teenagers in rail accidents in Wayne and Garfield in early October.

The report is available on the transportation department website at: www.state.nj.us/transportation/