Teen killed by train

Posted 8/21/12

OTISVILLE, NY — On the evening of September 12, a 19-year-old man who was standing on train tracks near the Otisville train station was struck and killed by a commuter train.

Metropolitan …

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Teen killed by train

Posted

OTISVILLE, NY — On the evening of September 12, a 19-year-old man who was standing on train tracks near the Otisville train station was struck and killed by a commuter train.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority police identified the man as Lewis Thomas Roemer.

An MTA spokeswoman said that the train operator applied the brakes on the New Jersey Transit Commuter train, but there was not enough time to stop before striking Roemer, who was trespassing on MTA property at the time.

Roemer was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident prompted the closure of the tracks for several hours, but the train was running again in time for the next day’s commute. In the meantime, commuters reached their final destinations by bus.

MTA continues to investigate the incident.

According to the Federal Railway Administration in 2015, there were 244 fatalities caused by people or vehicles being struck by trains in 2015. That number has been generally dropping over the past several decades. In 2000 the number was 425, and in 1990 the number was 698.

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