12 Jun NJ Transit ordered to pay $1.5M in fatal railroad crossing crash
A New Jersey appeals court upheld a $1.5M verdict for the family of Santos Alverio Jr., who was killed when a New Jersey Transit train hit his car at a faulty crossing. The jury found NJ Transit knew about the malfunction and failed to fix it.
A $1.5 million jury award to the family of a Hammonton man who was killed when a New Jersey Transit train struck his car at a railroad crossing has been upheld by a state appeals court.
The crash occurred on March 9, 2018, when Santos Alverio, Jr. was driving east on Line Street in Hammonton with his brother in the passenger seat.
As they crossed the tracks, a southbound New Jersey Transit train collided with their car. Alverio was killed instantly, while his brother survived with serious injuries.
The appeals court agreed with the Atlantic County jury’s finding that New Jersey Transit was negligent in maintaining the Line Street crossing.
The crash was caused by a malfunctioning gate arm and poor warning signals, not by anything Alverio did, the court found.
During the trial, the jury heard conflicting accounts of what happened at the crossing.
Alverio’s brother testified that the warning lights weren’t flashing, the gates weren’t down, and the train horn didn’t sound.
Expert witnesses supported his version of events, saying the southern gate arm didn’t fully lower until after the car had already entered the crossing.
New Jersey Transit, however, argued that Alverio was at fault for driving under a lowered gate and ignoring the warnings.
Their expert, Richard Moakes, testified that the gate was fully down and the train horn was used properly under federal rules. He also claimed that Alverio’s car made contact with the gate arm.
But Moakes acknowledged there was no physical evidence, no scratches or marks on the car or the gate, to prove that contact actually happened, according to the court ruling.
The jury ultimately found that even if Alverio had made a mistake, it wasn’t what caused the crash.
Instead, they found that New Jersey Transit had known about the malfunctioning gate more than 15 hours before the crash and failed to perform the safety checks required by federal regulations.
The jury awarded $50,000 for pain and suffering and $1.5 million under New Jersey’s Wrongful Death Act to Alverio’s family.
New Jersey Transit appealed the verdict, arguing that the jury’s findings were inconsistent and that the trial court used the wrong legal standard.
But the appeals court said the jury got the right instructions and it was their job to decide what kind of responsibilities New Jersey Transit had.
Ruben Honik, the attorney for the Alverio family, praised the decision.
He said that the jury clearly recognized that “New Jersey Transit’s railroad crossing had malfunctioned, that it had notice of same, and that it failed to perform required inspection and repairs to avoid this tragedy.”
New Jersey Transit was represented in the case by the Office of the Attorney General, which declined to comment.