Teen Killed by Train Made No Attempt to Move, Officials Say
15-year-old Spring Lake Heights boy hit by NJ Transit train late Wednesday night
Photos
A teenager from Spring Lake Heights who died Wednesday night after he was hit by a train apparently made no attempt to get out of the way, officials said.
Shortly after 10 p.m., a 15-year-old boy was struck by a northbound NJ Transit train near the Wall Road rail crossing in Spring Lake and died at the scene, Spring Lake Police Lt. Gerald Preston said.
The preliminary investigation revealed that the boy walked onto the tracks Wednesday night and did not try moving from the path of the oncoming train, NJ Transit spokesman John Durso Jr. said. The full investigation is still being conducted by NJ Transit Police, Durso said.
NJ Transit released the boy's name, but Patch is withholding that information as policy when suicide is a possible cause of death.
Local counselors have volunteered to be available at the Spring Lake Heights Recreation Center tonight and tomorrow night from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., according to Fran Miceli, clinical director of the Samaritan Center, a nonprofit counseling center in Manasquan.
Two local youths were killed by trains in 2008 near the same Wall Road crossing. Authorities later ruled both incidents suicides.
From 2008 to 2009, four Manasquan High School students or recent graduates at the time were hit and killed by NJ Transit trains. The most recent was a 17-year-old from Spring Lake Heights who died Oct. 2009.
And as recently as last year, two women in separate local incidents died when their vehicles were hit by trains.
The state recently announced that it was stepping up safety measures along its railroad tracks after a recorded 81 recent accidents across New Jersey.
Fifty one of those incidents were fatal, according to a report from NJ Transit and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), prompting the agencies to come up some with ideas to promote safety and reduce accidental deaths.
For nearly three hours late Wednesday into early Thursday, local, county and NJ Transit officials investigated the scene along the northbound track, roughly 100 yards north of the Wall Road crossing.
Service was temporarily suspended from Long Branch to Bay Head but has since resumed, Durso said.
Durso said 12 passengers were on the train at the time of the incident, but none were injured. Buses picked up the passengers and brought them to their destinations, he said.
NJ Transit Police are leading the investigation.
Rebecca Robinson
12:46 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thoughts and prayers to his family and friends. I have been thru this nightmare. I lost a loved one this way. No words.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
Zerosignal_
2:59 pm on Thursday, February 16, 2012
Schools need to show these kids the gruesome aftermath crime scene photos. That will deter these kids when they realize what a train does to the human body.
Freight Trains Boogier
9:24 am on Friday, February 17, 2012
Thank you for respecting the privacy of the family as they suffer through this tragedy by not publishing his name. Some of my friends and friends of my children knew this young man personally. From all accounts he was a good decent young man.
OldCoolBlues
12:52 pm on Friday, February 17, 2012
You're correct...thankfully the young man's name was not mentioned. However, why did they have to mention the name from a previous tragedy. No respect of that family taken into consideration here.
BP
2:12 am on Sunday, February 19, 2012
Does the media ever think
Hmmm
1. Why wasn't the train video camera paid for by the tax-payers not seized "immediately"by OUR cops and is being taken off the train by the RAILROAD?
2. Where is the railroad guy/gal going with that train event recorder with the train speed, lights, horns, brakes, etc...recorded?
3. Why is that railroad worker taking that box out of the signal house?
4. Why is that train crew not being tested for drugs/alcohol?
5. Where is the track video linked to the trains to compensate for the sight distance the train can't compensate for and get stopped?
6. Why under the trains there 100s of square feet to have better braking and there is not?
7. Why there is little fencing along tracks and no lookout towers along the tracks?
8. Why train stations don't have gates to open AFTER the train stops so people won't fall on the tracks?
9. Why trains go 50/6070/ mph through train stations/towns and they don't through railyards?
10. Why RR keep out signs are MILES apart in many places?
11. Why their had to be witnesses and never are against the railroad and our cops use railroads hear-say?
12. Why the railroad is allowed around the crime scene at all?
Rachel
12:27 pm on Sunday, March 10, 2013
Are you high? How ridiculous!
BP
2:13 am on Sunday, February 19, 2012
13. Why the railroads get to self-investigate and Jeffrey Dohmer wasn't allowed to?
14. Where the equipment the railroad removes after killing/ injuring someone goes?
15. Why we are paying the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Transit Administration millions and they never show up unless the media attention is beyond local level and the railroad needs a good cover story?
16. How the NTSB /FRA never finds fault with the railroads.
And on the phoney Operation Lifesaver/Officer on the Train stings ticketing everything in sight.
1. Why nothing is ever mentioned about any of the above?
2. Why nothing is mentioned about blind crossings?
3. Why nothing is mentioned about the missing signals at blind crossings?
4. Why the so-called Operation Lifesaver people are all ex-railroad or work for the state DOTs?
5. Why that train is just sitting there forcing the crossing signals to work DARING people to cross?
6. Why OLI never mentions train speeds which are set too high through populated areas?
7. Why OLI never mentions the highly toxic cargos of these train bombs going too fast?
8. How in the world the police can ticket the drivers for stopping behind the gate and not at the stripe on the street which is supposed to be 50 feet from the tracks?
9. Or if the driver needs to stop 50 feet away why isn't the gate 50 feet away from the tracks?
10. Why the railroads crossing signals fail Federal road standards that a signal has to give the drivers time to obey?
JAILE
11:49 am on Thursday, April 26, 2012
I UNDERSTAND YOUR FRUSTRATION AT THE RR, IT IS THE SUICIDE CLUSTER, HOWEVER, THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE DEATHS. IT HAS BEEN HAPPENING FOR THIRTY YEARS IN THIS AREA, I KNOW I GREW UP THERE AND AT LEAST EIGHT KIDS WERE DEAD BEFORE WE WERE IN OUR TWENTIES. IF A KID WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF, HE WILL FIND A WAY, THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT IS NOT NJT S FAULT
Rachel
12:28 pm on Sunday, March 10, 2013
Are you high? That is ridiculous!