New Jersey Transit Urges Residents To Stay Off Railroad Tracks [VIDEO]

New Jersey Transit officials have unveiled two no-nonsense public service announcements spotlighting the deadly consequences of not paying attention, and making poor choices at railroad crossings.

The ads are in response to the deaths of three Jersey teenagers last October along train tracks.

Following the tragedies, state Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson organized and convened the Railroad Crossings Leadership Oversight Committee, comprised of representatives from agencies such as the Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Highway Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the New Jersey Department of Education, State Police, Motor Vehicle Commission and the Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety, along with NJ TRANSIT Police, NJ DOT, NJ TRANSIT and Operation Lifesaver.

Challenged to come up with recommendations within 30 days to mitigate the senseless, tragic deaths, the Committee heeded the Commissioner’s call; issuing initial recommendations within the deadline, and detailed recommendations this past winter.

“This committee has relentlessly pursued every available avenue to prevent fatalities on the rail system, through an approach we call ‘E-cubed’— Engineering, Enforcement and Education,” says Simpson, “today, we are taking this approach to the next level – launching more aggressive enforcement, preparing to install new physical barriers and technological warning systems, and airing a duo of blunt, no-nonsense public service announcements that crystallize the very impact wrought by poor choices at railroad crossings.”

The ads feature two NJ TRANSIT engineers and an NJ TRANSIT conductor who have been involved in railroad fatalities, as well as two NJ TRANSIT police officers who have both responded to railroad fatalities, and Billy Carroll, a Westmont resident whose son was fatally injured on the Atlantic City Line in November of 2009, and Matt Mattheiss, the lone survivor of a 1975 South Orange railway incident which resulted in the deaths of three of his close friends.