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More than a year after a safety initiative was launched, deaths by train continue to mount. Worse, they have accelerated.

(Alex Remnick/The Star-Ledger)

Spurred by the deaths of three teenage boys on the train tracks in a 24-hour period in 2011, the state Department of Transportation and NJ Transit redoubled safety efforts.

The agencies extended fencing, stepped up patrols and placed new warning signs at stations. They increased education in schools and filmed hard-hitting public service announcements, one of them bluntly titled "You’re Dead."

They even took to social media, targeting kids and adults alike with the message that a train is a brutally efficient killer.

But more than a year after that safety initiative was launched, the deaths continue to mount. Worse, they have accelerated.

The 4:55 p.m. train pulls into the Plauderville station in Garfield.

Twenty-three people have been killed on tracks shared by NJ Transit and Amtrak this year, setting a pace that could make 2013 New Jersey’s deadliest year on the rails in decades.

The eight-month total, bloated by 10 deaths in July and August, already has eclipsed last year’s 22 fatalities. Since 1990, deaths on NJ Transit’s system have climbed above 30 just five times, with a high of 34 in 2010, agency records show.

Behind the surge are suicides, which have steadily increased even as accidental deaths have declined, the records show. Just two of this year’s fatalities have been labeled accidents. Four have yet to be classified. The rest are considered suicides or possible suicides.

It’s a problem railroads are grappling with across the country.

Trespasser deaths — a category that includes those who died intentionally or who were accidentally killed walking along or across the tracks — jumped 26 percent in the first five months of 2013, according to records kept by the Federal Railroad Administration. More recent figures have yet to be compiled by the agency.

"It’s a growing trend, unfortunately," said Robert Kulat, an FRA spokesman. "It’s a concern."

New Jersey Rail Deaths

The graphic below shows trespasser fatalities on commuter lines since 1990. Mouse over the bars to see exact amounts. Note: NJ Transit has tracked Amtrak fatalities only since 2008. For years 1990 to 2007, Amtrak fatalities listed in this chart should be considered a bare minimum because suicides were not always reported to the Federal Railroad Administration.

Sources: NJ Transit, Federal Railroad Administration

Last August, the FRA convened a national summit on trespasser deaths with state transportation officials, law enforcement officials and representatives of Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit group that promotes rail safety.

The attendees came up with dozens of ideas for improving safety, some of which have been implemented in New Jersey, but the industry as a whole continues to struggle with people intent on taking their own lives. For some of those people, the tracks are a beacon.

"They choose the tracks because the tracks are there," said Lanny Berman, a psychologist who serves as executive director of the American Association of Suicidology in Washington, D.C. "Availability and access are the top reasons when one has intent."

CONVENIENT AND LETHAL

Gun owners who commit suicide, for example, will typically use their own weapons to end their lives, Berman said. In the absence of a weapon, he said, people will look for what’s close and convenient.

There is another reason — perhaps an obvious one — why suicidal people choose the tracks: Trains almost always kill.

"It usually achieves what they’re looking for," said Todd Hirt, Operation Lifesaver’s New Jersey coordinator. "It’s a fatality 99.9 times out of a hundred."

There are few discernible patterns in the 23 years of data provided by NJ Transit. Sometimes fatalities are spaced out evenly over a year. Sometimes they come in bunches. In one 18-day span this summer — July 31 to Aug. 17 — seven people were killed.

The victims this year ranged in age from 18 to 60. All but three were men, a statistic in keeping with national averages.

A demographic study produced by the FRA last year showed that 82 percent of those killed on the tracks were men. Eighty-one percent were white. In just over half the cases, alcohol or drugs had been used prior to the incidents.

In an attempt to counter suicidal behavior, NJ Transit is placing posters bearing a crisis hotline at the agency’s 164 stations. That work is about 80 percent complete, spokesman William Smith said. The number is (855) 654-6735.

TAKING PRECAUTIONS

Beyond the posters, NJ Transit and the state DOT have made scores of safety improvements. In Garfield, the scene of more train fatalities than any community in New Jersey, workers have added fencing and an electronic sign that gives an audible warning when a second train is coming.

In Matawan, so-called "skirts" have been installed below crossing gates, preventing people from ducking under them. Along certain high-risk routes, workers have cleared brush to give engineers better visibility.

In Hamilton Township, where several people committed suicide by stepping in front of high-speed Amtrak Acela trains, police now monitor a camera that watches over the tracks, said Hirt, the Operation Lifesaver coordinator.

If someone shows signs of despondency or wanders too close to the tracks, police respond, Hirt said.

Even with those measures, however, more could be done, contends Berman, of the American Association of Suicidology.

Fencing, for instance, should be extended even farther from rail stations, he said.

"What we know from studies is that people who are thwarted from desired access don’t necessarily walk 10 miles to get in front of a train," he said. "People don’t go that extra effort. If I can stop you from doing what you intend to do, you’ve got to problem-solve, and people who are suicidal generally are not good problem-solvers."

And while signs advertising a crisis hotline certainly won’t hurt, Berman said, they should be paired with dedicated telephones that instantly connect to a counselor. NJ Transit and Amtrak don’t provide those phones, he said.

In a statement, NJ Transit said it is doing "everything possible" to prevent accidental deaths and has partnered with suicide prevention agencies to address suicidal trespassers.

The agency also urged people to consider the impact fatalities have on train crews and first responders.

It’s an impact that can’t be overstated, said David Decker, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers at NJ Transit.

Engineers, who operate trains, have a front-row view to such deaths.

"A police officer might do 20 years on the job and never pull his gun and never experience what some engineers do, with five or six fatalities over the course of their careers," Decker said. "People do not realize what goes through the engineer’s head when it happens, when they look you right in the eye and don’t move off the tracks. That’s horrific."

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