Bizarre Accident on Conrail North Jersey Shared Assets

Saturday, September 17th, 2005 at 20:00 EDT
At approximately 03:40 this morning northbound CSXT train Q-418-16 operating from Pavonia Yard in Camden, NJ to Selkirk, NY was involved in a bizarre vehicular accident. Train Q-418-16 powered by CSXT 9023, CSXT 8667, and HLCX 8141 and consisting of two loads and fifty-five empties that totaled 2,320 tons was struck by a garbage truck that crashed through a guard rail and off an overpass down onto the train. The accident occurred at Paterson Plank Road in North Bergen, NJ located at milepost QRN 1 on the Northern Branch. The truck crashed into the 41st car in the car in the train, PLMX 35190, an empty haz-mat car containing residue liquefied petroleum gas. Luckily, the car did not leak and there was no explosion. Unfortunately, both the driver and passenger were fatalities. The mishap shut down all rail traffic through the area for several hours resulting in delays to many trains.