- RED BANK, N.J. — Ten pedestrians have died on NJ Transit tracks so far this year. The latest was Terry Haupt, a sixteen-year-old student at Red Bank Regional High School.
Haupt was walking near the Chestnut Street grade crossing at 6:20 a.m. on May 13 when Train 3218 struck him. The Middlesex County Medical Examiner pronounced him dead at the scene. NJ Transit issued an alert at 6:23 a.m. calling the incident a "trespasser fatality." The label raises the same question that emerged about one month ago in Dover, when another high school student died under the same classification: what does the agency mean when it calls a dead teenager a trespasser, and why does the label arrive before the investigation concludes?
Train 3218 left Long Branch at 6:08 a.m. It carried fifty-five passengers toward New York Penn Station. Chief Michael Frazee of the Red Bank Police Department said the train struck Haupt a few hundred feet south of the Chestnut Street grade crossing. NJ Transit has not disclosed the train's speed at impact, whether the gates were down, whether the lights flashed, or whether Haupt heard anything through his headphones. The train blocked the crossing for hours while investigators worked. NJ Transit suspended service between Long Branch and Matawan, both in Monmouth County, disrupting morning commuters. Service remained suspended until 9:15 a.m., when NJ Transit announced restoration with residual delays.
NJ Transit's alert used the word "trespasser," a term the Federal Railroad Administration defines as someone illegally on private railroad property without permission. Haupt died south of the crossing, on the tracks. The label may fit the federal definition. But the speed of its application matters.
In Dover, on April 16, NJ Transit called Cristofer Chavez Huamani an "adult male trespasser" after his death. Huamani was a Dover High School student. He was walking along the Morris and Essex Line near a swimming hole when Train 858 hit him at 6:20 p.m. Dover Police Chief Jon Delaney later told reporters that residents had previously requested additional fencing along that stretch of track. Two students, about one month apart, both labeled trespassers.
NJ Transit has issued no incident report number and no explanation of its trespasser classification protocol. The school district released a detailed statement about counselor deployment. Superintendent Louis Moore kept Red Bank Regional High School on its regular schedule the day Haupt died. Moore deployed counselors and clinicians from The Source, the school's youth services program. The Source staffs four clinicians plus school counselors and a child study team. Culinary arts students prepared meals for Haupt's family. Students wrote condolence cards.
In Dover, residents had asked for barriers before the death. In Red Bank, at a borough council meeting two nights after Haupt died, school board member Jennifer Garcia read a letter from her daughter Eva, a Rutgers student away at college. Eva's letter demanded more warning signs and barriers along the tracks. Deputy Mayor Kate Triggiano posted on Facebook that the community had wrapped Haupt's family in love. Alan Soden, president of Red Bank American Youth Football, where Haupt played, called the loss huge. Track and field coach Brendan McGoldrick said Haupt always had a smile.
Red Bank has seen at least four confirmed train-pedestrian deaths since 2020. The Asbury Park Press reports the total may be six. Joseph Rego, fifty-two, died at Monmouth Street in October 2024. Another man died there in September 2024. Gabriel Aparicio-Hernandez, twenty-seven, died near the Bridge Avenue crossing in June 2022. Operation Lifesaver, citing preliminary Federal Railroad Administration statistics, recorded 2,272 highway-rail grade crossing collisions nationwide in 2025, with 288 fatalities and 764 injuries.
The borough sits on a commuter line that cuts through residential neighborhoods, past parks and schools. The Chestnut Street crossing where Haupt died ranked fourteenth out of one hundred New Jersey crossings slated for closure priority, according to a 2023 NJDOT and NJ Transit grade crossing safety study. The study weighted crash frequency, average annual daily traffic, train volume and proximity to schools. The crossing, which sits 0.16 miles from the nearest school, saw one crash between 2010 and 2020. It got signal and surface upgrades in 2020. The gates remain open. NJDOT's draft FY 2026 transportation capital program allocates $3 million in state funds for rail-highway grade crossing closures and upgrades, plus an additional $3.8 million in federal rail-highway crossing funds.
Yahoo News and NJ.com both reported, citing school officials, that Haupt was headed home from the YMCA when he died. The Asbury Park Press reported he was heading to school. The two accounts have not been reconciled. The YMCA of Greater Monmouth County operates facilities near Red Bank. Red Bank Regional High School sits near the tracks. The Middlesex County Medical Examiner's Office pronounced him dead at the scene, operating under a 2016 interlocal agreement that merged Monmouth County's medical examiner functions with Middlesex and Mercer. The manner and cause of death remain pending.
NJ Transit Police are investigating the incident. The agency has not released a report number, has not disclosed whether the crossing signals activated, and has not explained why a crossing ranked for closure priority three years ago remains in service. The North Jersey Coast Line resumed service at 9:15 a.m. The Chestnut Street crossing remained open.
NJ 101.5 reported that NJ Transit counted 22 fatal incidents in 2025 and 10 fatal pedestrian strikes so far this year. New Jersey's state traffic fatality count dropped roughly fifteen percent in 2025, according to the Attorney General's office. But Ocean, Morris, Camden, Cape May, Hudson and Salem counties saw increases.
Terry Haupt played football for Red Bank American Youth Football and ran track at Red Bank Regional, where his coach remembered a sixteen-year-old who always had a smile. The school district kept the building open for grief counseling and sent culinary arts students to prepare meals for his family. NJ Transit restored the North Jersey Coast Line by 9:15 a.m., and the Chestnut Street crossing has stayed open. NJ 101.5 reported that NJ Transit counted 22 fatal pedestrian strikes in all of 2025. This year’s total currently sits at ten.
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Sources
• Brian Donohue, redbankgreen, "Pedestrian killed by train at Red Bank station" (May 13, 2026)
• NJ.com, "Pedestrian killed by NJ Transit train in Red Bank" (May 13, 2026)
• Asbury Park Press, "Red Bank student killed by train was wearing headphones, police say" (May 15, 2026)
• Mike Davis, Asbury Park Press, "Red Bank Regional student identified in fatal NJ Transit strike" (May 16, 2026)
• NJ.com, "Student killed by NJ Transit train in Red Bank remembered as 'huge loss'" (May 15, 2026)
• Yahoo News, "16-Year-Old Boy Identified After Being Struck and Killed by NJ Transit Train in Red Bank" (May 15, 2026)
• NJ 101.5, "NJ Transit: 10th fatal pedestrian strike of the year" (May 14, 2026)
• NJDOT and NJ Transit, Grade Crossing Safety Study (2023)
• Federal Railroad Administration, "Highway-Rail Crossing & Trespassing" fact sheet (current)
• Operation Lifesaver, "Collisions & Casualties by Year" (2025)
• William Westhoven, Daily Record, "Dover HS student struck and killed by New Jersey Transit train" (April 17, 2026)
• William Westhoven, Daily Record, "Dover teen struck and killed by train identified" (April 19, 2026)
• News 12 New Jersey, "Dover community mourns high school student struck and killed by train" (April 17, 2026)
• MyCentralJersey, "Middlesex and Monmouth medical examiner's offices to merge" (February 25, 2016)
• NJ Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner, 2022 Annual Report
• NJDOT, FY 2026 Draft Transportation Capital Program (2025)