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(rshsdepot) South Amboy, NJ
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Safety efforts renewed at S. Amboy station
Appeal made after woman is killed on tracks
Wednesday, May 15, 2002
BY ALICIA GREY
Star-Ledger Staff
Little more than a week after a woman was killed crossing the railroad
tracks in South Amboy, the city's mayor and an assemblyman made a public
appeal yesterday to NJ Transit's new executive director to make train
station improvements a top priority.
City and state officials have talked for years about building an intermodal
transportation hub that would include a pedestrian walkway above the tracks,
an elevated platform and other changes.
If these improvements had been in place, last week's fatal train accident
could have been prevented, Mayor Jack O'Leary said.
Kathleen Osowski, a 32-year-old Brooklyn woman, was killed May 6 as she
hurried to catch a train to New York City. Witnesses said she walked around
the lowered gate at the Augusta Street train crossing and was struck by a
westbound NJ Transit train from New York City en route to Long Branch.
O'Leary and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) met with NJ Transit
Executive Director George Warrington yesterday to urge the agency to step up
its efforts to make the busy station safer.
Wisniewski said that Warrington made "a commitment to look for money to see
that the overpass is the first part of the project." They said the director
would come back to them with an answer in a week.
"It's not news that we've had plans to build an intermodal plaza, plans to
incorporate a high-level platform and walk-over that would make it safer
than it is today," the mayor said. "This is one of the most dangerous
crossings in New Jersey, if not the country."
The city has already secured a $2.5 million federal grant to pay for the
plaza, which is expected to cost $6.4 million.
The plaza will be the latest phase of a multimillion-dollar project to
modernize the train station, which sits behind Broadway. In all, NJ Transit
has allocated more than $20 million to make improvements to the train
station and parking lot.
Dodging gates and trying to outrun trains is nothing new, commuters and city
officials said.
"Everybody does it," said Sharon Bodnar of South Amboy, a regular commuter
who was at the station when Osowski died.
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
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