(Wayne, New Jersey – October 5, 2011)
Two of New Jersey’s top transit officials plan to visit and evaluate later this week the site of Sunday night’s double fatality of two teens who were trapped on a train trestle over Highway 46, along with a third boy, who escaped with minor injuries.
Nicholas Sabina, 17, and Alan Mendez, 16, were both killed by the empty passenger train, which was reportedly traveling at 60 mph, while Darien Robinson, 15, dove from the trestle and saved himself from probable fatal injury. Sabina’s mother, Doris Sabena, said she knew that kids routinely use the trestle as a shortcut to Willowbrook Mall, but New Jersey Transit Spokeswoman Penny Bassett Hackett claimed that transit officials were unaware of the trestle’s reputation as a pathway.
Regardless, NJ Transit Executive Director James Weinstein and New Jersey Dept. of Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson will tour the site of the tragedy later this week to determine what safety measures can be implemented to keep people off of the trestle.
“We are committed to doing anything we can to make sure something like this does not happen again,” stated Weinstein.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Simpson asked for the tour as he “would like NJ Transit to take another look to see what, if anything, more could be done”, according to Bassett-Hackett.