Paterson man, 22, run over by train

(From Bergen.com)

A city man was killed Thursday morning when he was struck by an NJ Transit commuter train as he lay in the railway just east of the Paterson station on Market Street.

Jose Marcus, 22, a resident of nearby Straight Street, was struck around 5:40 a.m. by a train that had departed Waldwick and was bound for Hoboken. NJ Transit's initial report of the incident says that Marcus was lying on the railroad tracks when he was struck.

"He was seen lying on the tracks in the gauge" just before he was hit, said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit. The gauge is the area between the two rails. The victim was struck about 2,000 feet east of the Paterson station, Stessel said.

Stessel said the engineer saw Marcus lying on the tracks and used his air brakes, but could not stop in time. There were no injuries to the passengers or crew, he said.

The NJ Transit train was taken out of service as part of the investigation. The 37 passengers aboard were put on another train which completed the trip to Hoboken.

Marcus was taken to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, where he was pronounced dead at 6:40 a.m., Stessel said.

An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.

He was LYING DOWN right on the tracks before the train came? It appears to be suicide.

This is all too familiar to an 1993 episode of "Beavis and Butt-head" in which they lie down in the middle of a highway. Several kids copied the stunt and were killed. MTV later edited the episode.

Its nothing but a sick sad world we live in. I don't know what that man could have possibly be thinking to lay between the rails...

Not trying to be rude, but if you going to kill yourslef at least be considerate and don't mess up the entire morning commute for all the other passenegers on that line.

I always thought if someone was lying in the middle of the guage, the train would just roll over the person (not that I would try that).

Its really a shame how people use trains as a way of killing themselves. God bless the crews and their familes.

>>>I always thought if someone was lying in the middle of the guage, the train would just roll over the person (not that I would try that).<<<

Depends if within the gauge. vs. over the rails, plus the clearance, the height of the rails plus a some more to clear at switches. Not a lot of clearance.

^But sometimes people do luck out and survive.

An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.

I'll wager $10 it was due to being run over by the train.

BigDell

BigDell wrote:

An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.

I'll wager $10 it was due to being run over by the train.

BigDell

Watch, they find out that he had a heart attack and died seconds before he was actually hit...

how many days off does the engineer get? with the T or Amtrak, i heard it is 3 days for the engineer, conductors and someone else, is it the same for NJ transit

sullivan1985 wrote:

BigDell wrote:

An autopsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.

I'll wager $10 it was due to being run over by the train.

Watch, they find out that he had a heart attack and died seconds before he was actually hit...

Or he had some sort of brain aneurysm due to an overload of alcohol and drugs.

Yeah, that's probably more like what happened...