Car Hit By NJ Transit Train At Cedar Ave. Rail Crossing In Middlesex

MIDDLESEX BORO, NJ — An NJ Transit train struck an unoccupied car that appeared to be stuck at the Cedar Avenue rail crossing Thursday night in Middlesex borough, according to an NJ Transit spokesman.

There were no injuries, and the driver had gotten out of the car before the car was hit by the train.

The train, running on the Raritan Valley line, hit the car at approximately 9 p.m. Thursday. The train had departed Raritan station at 8:47 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive at New York Penn Station at 10:10 p.m.

There were also no reported injuries to the 20 train passengers or crew on board.

The Cedar Avenue rail crossing is where the NJ Transit tracks cross over Cedar Avenue/Possumtown Road in Middlesex borough. It is notoriously dangerous, and multiple people have been hit by trains and killed there in the past few years.

Three people were killed at the Cedar Avenue crossing in the winter of 2020, in two separate incidents:

• On Jan. 22, 2020 a 17-year-old teen from Middlesex borough was hit by a train while walking on the train tracks at Cedar Avenue. He was hit at 11:10 p.m. by an NJ Transit train. That incident was a suicide.
• Earlier that same month, at 8 a.m. on Jan. 3, 2020 two women were killed when their car went around the gate and crossed the tracks at Cedar Avenue while a train was coming. The train hit their car directly while it was on the tracks and both women were killed. Florence Obado, 73, of New Brunswick was the driver of the car. Her passenger was Susan Mazurek, 44, of Middlesex borough.
• In January 2011, a man driving a tractor trailer was killed after his trailer was hit by a Norfolk Southern freight train there, according to MyCentralJersey.

Both NJ Transit and Conrail use those tracks. Middlesex borough has long called to have the state build a bridge to carry the road over the tracks.

In 2020, the NJ Dept. of Transportation, U.S. Rail Administration, NJ Transit and Conrail, plus Middlesex Police, held this emergency meeting about the Cedar Avenue rail crossing.

"The purpose of the meeting was what can be done short term and should be done long term to make the crossing safe," said Middlesex borough at the time. "A consensus was reached to fix the paving with a better surface and have the traffic lights on both sides of the track stop traffic before the train warning lights and arms come down. Long term, it was agreed that the site warrants having a bridge."

Train Hits Truck: 3rd Accident This Winter At Cedar Ave. Crossing (Feb. 2020)

Here is a video of the Cedar Avenue railroad crossing: