New Jersey Safety along Railroads: Short-Term Action Plan
Source: New Jersey Department of Transportation
In an effort to reduce injuries and fatalities at New Jersey railroad crossings, and particularly in response to the October, 2011 rail trespass fatalities, NJDOT Commissioner James Simpson and NJ TRANSIT Executive Director James Weinstein took immediate action by calling together experts from transit, traffic, police, and education agencies at the federal and state levels to develop strategies to strengthen rail safety across the state.
With Diagnostic Team site visits on October 19, 2011 and a statewide NJ Safety at Railroad Crossings Leadership Oversight Committee meeting on November 9, 2011, representatives began an aggressive process to develop model rail safety improvement strategies in the areas of engineering, enforcement and education.
Equipped with current statistics on rail injuries and fatalities, as well as research on best practices in engineering design, education and enforcement programs, three sub-committees were assigned the task of identifying short-term actions to improve pedestrian safety, which are now highlighted in this Action Plan.
