Several Injured in N.J. When Train, Truck Collide in Little Falls

A school crossing guard was injured by flying debris on Wednesday morning after she tried to help the driver of a tractor-trailer carrying a payload of paint maneuver out of a railroad crossing in Little Falls as a commuter train barreled toward them, authorities said.

The train's engineer and seven others on board, including five passengers, also were injured when the train, which was unable to stop, slammed into the back of the 53-foot tractor-trailer at the Main Street crossing at 8:15 a.m.

The crossing guard, Linda Knauer, 61, was being called a hero by township officials, who said she was still at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson on Wednesday night, stable and recovering from unspecified injuries.

The impact shattered dozens of canisters in the trailer. Some of them crashed through the windshield of the lead railroad car, coating much of the train and many of its passengers in yellow paint.

"The engineer was covered all over with yellow paint and blood on top of that," said Tom Kearns, an employee at Amazing Lift Truck Inc., where the lead car came to a stop.

Authorities said visibility was limited at the time of the accident, and they are investigating whether dense fog was a factor.

The victims were treated at area hospitals, and all but Knauer had been released by Wednesday night, officials said. The truck's cab was untouched and the driver, Jaswinder Singh of Carteret, was not injured.

Singh, 23, was issued summonses for careless driving and improper crossing for being in a railroad crossing when the gates came down, said John Durso Jr., an NJ Transit spokesman. Singh backed his truck into the crossing after he was unable to make a left turn from Main Street onto Fairfield Avenue, where he was making a delivery to the Sto of NJ paint warehouse, officials said.

Singh, who owns the company that was making the delivery, Malhi Transport, said it was the first time he had been to that location, and that there was no warning that the turn was difficult for large trucks.

"There's no sign there saying 'no left turn,' " he said. "If this is such a hard turn to make, there should be an alternate route."

Singh said there was no sign of a train when he backed into the crossing and that he tried to pull straight ahead when the warning lights begin to flash. He said he didn't have time to get the tractor completely out of the crossing.

Knauer, a school crossing guard for 12 years who was stationed at Main Street and Fairfield Avenue, knew the NJ Transit schedule and tried to warn the truck driver that a train was about to come though the intersection, said Joanne Bergin, the Little Falls township administrator. The Banyan School for special needs students is nearby.

"Linda is a true hero," Bergin said in an email. "She saw the truck and tried desperately to alert him that the turn was too tight. She knew the train schedule, knew the children's school schedule and ran toward the truck trying desperately to warn him instead of running to protect herself. ... She is recovering with the love, support and prayers of our entire community."

Singh gave a slightly different account of the accident. He said he does not remember Knauer warning him about a train but that she waved at him to maneuver the truck out of the crossing. He said there were no students nearby at the time of the accident and that he does not remember the gates coming down.

Officials said Knauer was hit by debris after the train struck the back of the truck, sending pieces of the trailer and shattered 5-gallon yellow plastic pails of paint flying through the air. They said a total of 10 people were injured in the accident and its aftermath, including a Little Falls firefighter who hurt his arm while helping passengers out of the train.

Gate recently replaced

Eight of the 71 people on board the train suffered injuries, including the engineer, a conductor and a ticket collector, authorities said. Eight people, including the injured firefighter, were taken to St. Joseph's Regional Medical center and two were taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic, officials said.

Authorities noted that the turn onto Fairfield Avenue from Main Street poses a challenge for truck drivers -- one that is made more hazardous by the proximity of the railroad tracks. NJ Transit officials said a crossing gate had been knocked down and replaced a little over a week ago.

Local business owners said trucks frequently fail to correctly negotiate the turn and either continue down Main Street before turning around or back up into the railroad crossing. A worker at a nearby maintenance supply company, Matthew Lamotta, said NJ Transit has made repairs to the crossing three times in the last 10 years.

"It can be a very difficult turn, especially for a driver who doesn't know the area," Lamotta said.

NJ Transit provided shuttle buses to bypass the area of the crash, taking passengers between the Montclair State University transit center on Clove Road in Little Falls and the Wayne/Route 23 and Mountain View stations in Wayne, said Nancy Snyder, an agency spokeswoman.

Officials said debris was still being removed from the tracks on Wednesday evening and that it was not clear if the work would be completed by this morning. A crane stood on the tracks on Wednesday evening, propping up two damaged utility poles. Workers from Public Service Electric and Gas hoped to replace those poles sometime overnight, said a company spokesman, Mike Jennings. He said no PSE&G customers lost power because of the accident.

NJ Transit officials said the crossing gates were operating properly at the time of the accident. They were up when Singh first entered the intersection and came down while his truck was on the tracks, they said. The Hoboken-bound train, on the Montclair-Boonton Line, was unable to brake in time and came to a stop 400 feet down the track from the point of impact.

NJ Transit officials were unable to say how fast the train was going. They said they are using video surveillance from nearby businesses as part of their investigation.

Lamotta, who works down the street from the crossing, said he was at his desk shortly before 8:15 a.m. when he heard the familiar rumble of a train followed by a loud crash. He said he didn't hear a train whistle.

Kearns said he and another employee of his trucking company gave first responders a ladder to use as they put the engineer onto a backboard and removed him from the train. He said rescuers then took out passengers, also covered in yellow paint, one at a time.

Staff Writers Tariq Zehawi, Matthew McGrath, Zach Patberg and Karen Rouse contributed to this article.