New Jersey Transit

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, August 29, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Random drug testing, now being reconsidered for New York subway workers in the wake of Wednesday morning’s fatal derailment, is a fact of life for NJ Transit employees, who move most of the state’s bus and rail travelers, officials say.
Five passengers died and 259 people, including rescuers, were injured when a Manhattan IRT train derailed near the Union Square station at 14th Street shortly after midnight. A vial that later tested positive for crack cocaine was found in the motorman’s cab.
Most mass transit passengers in New Jersey come under federal drug-testing regulations that were enacted three years after the 1987 collision between Conrail locomotives and an Amtrak passenger train in which 16 people were killed and 175 injured. Those rules, enacted by the Federal Railroad Administration, mandate random drug testing for about 1,400 NJ Transit rail employees who hold safety-sensitive positions, said NJ Transit spokesman Jeff Lamm.
The New Jersey Supreme Court last year swept away a challenge of drug testing’s constitutionality by about 4,200 NJ Transit bus employees in similar jobs.
PATH train workers holding the safety-sensitive jobs are also subject to the federal agency’s regulations on periodic random testing, said John Kampfe, a spokesman for the Port Authority.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the New York subways, is not subject to the federal agency’s guidelines. Instead, it falls under the jurisdiction of the federal Urban Mass Transportation Authority, which has been seeking federal legislation that would allow it to set drug-testing guidelines.
New York City Mayor David Dinkins and MTA Chairman Peter Stangl both said drug-testing procedures may have to be reexamined and random drug testing might be instituted because of the derailment.
The testing would have to be negotiated with the transit unions, which have fought to cut back on the amount of testing.
This article contains material from The Associated Press.

Keywords: DRUG; TEST; NEW JERSEY; EMPLOYMENT; TRANSIT; RAILROAD; ACCIDENT; DEATH; VICTIM; NEW YORK CITY; ABUSE; ALCOHOL; BUS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, December 20, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A man was struck and killed by a northbound NJ Transit train as he was lying on the railroad track Tuesday night, police said.

Mahwah police Lt. Jim Bartelli said police were not ruling the death a suicide at this time, adding that the identification of the victim would be withheld until it could be confirmed with the family. Bartelli gave no description of the victim, other than to say he was Hispanic.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene, Bartelli said.

The engineer of the train, which left Hoboken for Suffern, N.Y., at 10:15 p.m., applied the brakes and sounded a whistle as soon when he saw the man on the track, said Sandra Check, an NJ Transit spokeswoman.

“The person failed to move,” Check said. “There was just no way to stop.”

The accident occurred about 11:21 p.m., about 1 1/4 miles from the Ramsey station, Check said.

None of the 10 passengers and about five NJ Transit employees on the train was injured, Check said.

The passengers were put on a bus and taken to their destinations. The tracks in both directions were closed for about two hours, until emergency vehicles were cleared from the scene.

Bartelli said Mahwah police were trying to determine where the man was going and what he was doing on the track at the time of the accident.

“We have a tentative identity but we are not a hundred percent sure until we speak to next of kin,” he said.

Tag: New Jersey Transit

TESTING IN PLACE IN N.J.

NJ TRANSIT TRAIN KILLS MAN IN MAHWAH