Morris-Essex Line of NJ Transit Strikes Pedestrian in Morristown

A "pedestrian strike" was reported by NJ Transit on the Morris Essex line in Morristown at around 6:40 PM today, Sunday, 1/30/2022.

The "pedestrian strike" was reported to have taken place near 3 Martin Luther King Avenue, around Verrilli's, a Morristown restaurant and bakery.

The male victim was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The approximate 50 customers and crew aboard the train were unharmed. Morristown FMBA Local 43 provided medical care and rescue at the scene.

The accident sent the 6:56 PM #6933 train back to Penn Station unable to pass beyond Morristown. Morris and Essex Line trains coming into NY Penn Station faced heavy delays and cancelations. Minutes later New Jersey Transit began announcing delays and cancelations.

Hours after the "pedestrian strike" the Morris and Essex line faced delays and cancelations. Commuters stuck at New York Penn Station after six o'clock were delayed until the 11:11 PM departure of the Morris and Essex Line.

New Jersey Transit trains have a long and ubiquitous history of "pedestrian strikes." NJ.com reported on the large number of pedestrians hit by NJ Transit trains back in July of 2021 in an article titled "Why do pedestrians keep getting hit by trains? NJ Transit is trying to solve the mystery."

In 2011, the New Jersey State Department of Transportation "redoubled safety efforts" after three teenage boys were killed by trains in New Jersey in a 24-hour period. But less than two years after this incident "pedestrian strikes" continued to rise in New Jersey.

Since 2015, each year at least 20 people die from train strikes in New Jersey.

Operation Life Savor, a non-profit organization dedicated to "rail safety education" publishes yearly statistics on "pedestrian-train incidents." In 2020, New Jersey had the ninth most casualties in the nation for "pedestrian-train incidents."

Unfortunately, a large number of pedestrian deaths as a result of being struck by a train are intentional, or suicide.

Rail officials in New Jersey have come up with dozens of ideas to improve rail safety, but to this day they still struggle to prevent strikes with people intent on taking their own lives.

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