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November 8, 2024|Regulatory

NTSB Issues Report on Preliminary Oct. 14 NJ Transit Collision

Written by Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor
​​Aerial view of the accident area. (Courtesy of Google Earth and NJ Transit.)
The National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) ongoing investigation of the Oct. 14, 2024, accident involving an Alstom employee operating the southbound NJ Transit light rail vehicle (LRV) 207 who was killed will focus on “NJ Transit’s right-of-way maintenance and inspection practices, dispatcher reporting procedures, and the crashworthiness of the LRV’s design,” the agency reported Nov. 7 during the release of its preliminary report.

What happened?

“An Alstom employee operating the southbound New Jersey NJ Transit LRV 207 was killed when the LRV struck a tree that had fallen across the tracks. LRV 207 was composed of two articulated railcars and had 41 passengers on board in addition to the operator. The LRV was travelling at 64 mph through a curve in a wooded area of the River Line from Trenton to Camden when it encountered the fallen tree. The operator activated the track brakes and the emergency brakes, causing the LRV to decelerate for about 430 feet before striking the tree. A branch of the tree penetrated through the forward windshield of the cab and fatally struck the operator. The LRV came to a stop about 880 feet past the point of impact. Twenty-three passengers were injured, transported to a nearby hospital for treatment, and released. NJ Transit estimated damages to equipment to be about $194,000,” according to the NTSB.

The incident occurred about 6:02 a.m. local time at milepost 24.54 near Florence in Burlington County, N.J. (see figure above); visibility conditions were dark with the LRV’s headlights providing the only illumination; and the weather was 60 °F with no precipitation, according to the NTSB, which noted that its information is “preliminary and subject to change.”

​The NTSB reported that while on the scene its investigators “inspected LRV 207, examined the track at the accident site, reviewed NJ Transit operating procedures, conducted sight distance observations, secured LRV 207’s event recorder for data retrieval, reviewed video recordings from the outward-facing camera of an LRV that approached the accident site shortly after the collision, and completed interviews.”

Parties to the investigation include the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT), NJ Transit, Alstom, and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART).