José Melgar, a 32-year-old Red Bank man, was in Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune with a fractured skull and other injuries after he was run over by a train at the borough rail station Sunday night, authorities said Monday morning.
Melgar was reported to have jumped off the platform in front of a northbound train as it was pulling into the station at 9:15 p.m., according to New Jersey Transit spokesman John Durso Jr.
“The train was entering the station, so it was going at a slow rate of speed,” Durso tells redbankgreen.
Durso said the train’s engineer saw the victim walk from the vicinity of a ticket-vending machine on the eastern platform and leap in front of the engine. Emergency stopping measures were unable to halt the train in time, he said.
Volunteer fire and first aid responders found Melgar lodged under the train on the westerly rail near the rear of the engine. Durso said he suffered a fractured skull and fractures to his arms and legs.
Melgar’s condition was not immediately avaialble.
About 40 passengers on the train were transferred to another train, Durso said. The one that struck the victim remained in the station until about 11 p.m. while an investigation was conducted, Durso said.
