Turns out there’s a doozie of a story behind that train delay redbankgreen reported earlier today.
Red Bank police say a motorist who ran a red light downtown early this morning decided he’d try to lose a police officer pursuing him over by turning his car onto the North Jersey Coast Line tracks at the Broad Street crossing.
He got about a hundred yards south into Little Silver before his car became the little engine that couldn’t.
According to a statement issued by the department, Detective Robert Clayton — working a temporary patrol assignment — saw a Dodge Neon run the light at the intersection of Broad Street and Harding Road at about 4:45a.
When Clayton activated his emergency lights, the driver of the vehicle first began to pull over to the curb, but then abruptly accelerated and took off.
The suspect then drove at high speed down Waverly Place (a narrow lane, mind you) to Maple Avenue, where he blew past a stop sign an made a left and continued south, to the Broad Street junction, police say
There, he turned onto the New Jersey Transit tracks, driving on the gravel rail bed between the east- and westbound tracks for approximately 100 yards, when the vehicle became stuck.
The driver then jumped from the car and fled on foot.
Ptl. George Travostino found and arrested the driver about an hour later as the suspect walked along Broad Street near the intersection of Pinckney Road, little more than a block from where he’d driven onto the tracks, police say.
The suspect was was identified as 23-year-old Diego Alpizar-Fernandez of Farmingdale. He was charged with eluding a police officer as well reckless driving, not having a driver’s license and other offenses.
Red Bank Judge William Himelman set bail at $20,000; Alpizar-Fernandez is being held at the police department pending transfer to the Monmouth County Correctional Facility.
Rail service was disrupted for approximately one and a half hours while the vehicle was removed from the railway, police say.
