(Gannett New Jersey circulated the following story by Larry Higgs on July 1.)
TRENTON, N.J. — Following an internal hearing on the death of a passenger who was dragged and killed by a NJ Transit train in November, the train’s crew was found to have violated operating procedures and has been fired.
The members of the crew — the trains’ locomotive engineer, conductor and assistant conductor — are appealing that decision, said Dan Stessel, NJ Transit spokesman. He declined to release the names of the crew members, citing employee confidentiality.
“The crew members are no longer working for NJ Transit, but have not yet exhausted their appeals, a process that is likely to take several more months,” Stessel said in an e-mail.
The accident at 2:20 a.m. Nov. 21 claimed the life of John D’Agostino, 49, a Neptune native who was disembarking from the train and apparently was caught on part of the rail car and dragged.
D’Agostino had been aboard a train that, two and a half hours earlier, had struck a woman in Matawan. The passengers stranded by the investigation into the woman’s death were transferred to a second train.
A preliminary investigation at the time of the accident determined that a member of the three-person train crew may not have been in the proper position at the rear of the train that killed D’Agostino, as required under NJ Transit procedures.
At an internal NJ Transit hearing this winter, the crew was found to have violated operating procedures, Stessel said. Since then, the crew has exhausted two in-house appeals and have the option of seeking binding arbitration, he said.
“They are approaching binding arbitration. The process is moving forward and should conclude in the next two to three months,” Stessel said.
NJ Transit rules require one member of the train crew to be at the rear door of the last car, observing the platform through the window, Stessel said in an earlier interview after the accident. Prior to leaving the station, the conductor or another crew member uses a buzzer to signal the engineer to proceed after all passengers are clear of the train, he said.
“The operating violations all relate to the crew position and the door,” Stessel said.
Records obtained by Gannett New Jersey showed that inspections of the rail cars found that there was no mechanical defect in the five rail cars that could have caused the accident.
An inspection done on the morning after the accident found no defects in the doors or steps. Records indicate the five rail cars and diesel locomotive had received a daily inspection on Nov. 20 in Bay Head and had a periodic inspection on Nov. 2 in Kearny. Train car doors are designed to open if they contact a person while closing.
An accident report made by NJ Transit to the Federal Railroad Administration listed the cause as “human factor” and said, “It appears (a) passengers piece of clothing was caught in the vicinity of the door and (the) passenger was dragged by (the) train and fatally injured.”
D’Agostino and the train crew all tested negative for alcohol, records show. An autopsy by the Assistant Monmouth County Medical Examiner, Dr. Sogra R. Saleem, determined the cause of death to be due to multiple lacerations, fractures and cuts sustained when he was run over by a train.
The ill-fated trip began when D’Agostino boarded North Jersey Coast Line train 3293 at New York Penn Station at 10:41 p.m. Nov. 20, with about 200 other passengers after he arrived by plane from Istanbul, Turkey, where he worked as an artist and schoolteacher.
After making a connection in Long Branch, the train carrying D’Agostino was scheduled to arrive in Bradley Beach by 12:35 a.m. Nov. 21.
But at 11:44 p.m., it struck and killed Joan Kelly, 22, of East Brunswick, who was walking on the tracks in Matawan. NJ Transit sent a second train for the remaining passengers, and the trip south continued at 1:30 a.m. Nov. 21. That train arrived in Bradley Beach about 2:15 a.m., when D’Agostino got off at the station.
D’Agostino had three bags, two of which he put on the platform. The third remained on the train, Stessel said.
“The investigation theorized that Mr. D’Agostino threw two bags off the train, which was corroborated by one witness on the platform who heard the sound of a bag landing on the platform and then a second,” Stessel said.
D’Agostino had a “mobility issue,” which required him to use both hands to get off the train, he said. According to the autopsy, he had Ace bandages on his lower legs. “We believe his left hand was caught in the grab rail on the side of the rail car,” Stessel said.
The grab rail is bolted to the side of the rail car, next to the door as an assist for passengers getting on or off the train.
NJ Transit police dispatch records said Bradley Beach police received calls at 2:30 a.m., reporting that a person had been hit by a train. Bradley Beach police arrived at 2:43 a.m. and confirmed a man had been hit and killed. The train was stopped at Ludlow Avenue in Spring Lake, and NJ Transit police took statements from three witnesses.