Three New Jersey teens killed in train accidents

Schools in two New Jersey communities are reeling this week after three teens were killed in two separate public transit accidents. The first accident occurred on Sunday when three teens, ages 15, 16 and 17, were walking on a railroad bridge shortly before 10 p.m. A train came down the tracks and the killed16-year-old and the 17-year-old, both of Fairfield. The 15-year-old Little Falls boy suffered non-life threatening injuries and survived the crash because he jumped down the embankment.

It is unclear why the boys were on the track. The train did not have any passengers on it at the time because it was heading to a maintenance yard.

The second accident happened on Monday when a 13-year-old cross country running was hit by a southbound train in Plauderville. Witnesses say that it was likely that the teen thought it was safe to cross the tracks after watching a northbound train pass. Unfortunately there was also a southbound train on the tracks and teen was not able to move out of the way in time.

Friends of the teen descended on the New Jersey Transit stop upon hearing the news. “I can’t believe it,” said a friend of the seventh grader’s death. “I really can’t.”

Teens kept massing at the train stop yesterday evening as their parents tried to console them. Train service on the Bergen County line was suspended for about an hour and a half. The teen was hit while on his way home from a cross country meet.

Source: NBC New York, “NJ Boy, 13, Killed by Train While Crossing Tracks” Katy Tur, Oct. 4, 2011