New Jersey Operation Lifesaver

About NJ OL

Taking Flight

New Jersey Operation Lifesaver's SEE TRACKS banner taking off from Tom's River.
Thank you to the Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh for funding the grant which made this possible.
(Please click on the link for video)

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Thank You Todd For Everything You Have Done

Best wishes from all of us for the next chapter

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New Jersey Operaition Lifesaver

New Jersey Operation Lifesaver is a not-for-profit (501c3) corporation originally established in 1978 and incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey as a public safety education and awareness organization dedicated to reducing collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail crossings and trespassing on or near New Jersey’s railroad tracks. NJOL promotes rail safety through public awareness campaigns and provides safety presentations to schools, driver education classes, and community audiences, and specialized programs for professional drivers, emergency responders, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and others. NJOL is a member of the New Jersey Railroad Association.

Why Operation Lifesaver is Needed!

Each year more than fifty people in New Jersey are killed or injured at highway-rail crossings and at other locations along railroad tracks.
Many people are unaware that trains cannot stop quickly to avoid collisions. They take chances by ignoring warning signs, disregarding signals, going around lowered gates, stopping on the track, or simply failing to pay attention when approaching highway-rail crossings. People also make the potentially fatal mistake of using railroad tracks as shortcuts or as places to walk or run for recreation. They may not realize that walking on train tracks is dangerous, or understand how quickly and quietly a train can approach. Our safety tips can save your life – or the life of someone you love.

NJ OL Events

DOWN BY THE STATION DAY

May 7, 2022
10:00 AM through 3:00 PM
535 Station Ave. Haddon Heights NJ 08035

• The Delaware & Susquehanna Model Railroad Club In cooperation with the West Jersey Chapter-National Railway Historical Society
• The West Jersey Chapter-NRHS will have a presentation on “Photos from the Box” Historic South Jersey and Philadelphia Photos at the Library starting at 1030
• The station will be open with trains running from 10:am to 3:00 PM.
  Stop by and enjoy Spring at Haddon Heights Historic District

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  MEETINGS

  Unless stated otherwise, organizational meetings and volunteer training sessions are held at the Monmouth Junction Volunteer Fire Department, 573 Ridge Rd, Monmouth Junction, NJ 08852
  Note: General Sessions have been suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Please contact a member of the Board of Directors with any concerns.

Next General Meeting: TBA

Board of Directors 9:00 am
General Session 10:00 am

New Volunteer Training

Contact Barara Foran (Sidebar) for further information.
Volunteer Application

RAILROAD OPEN HOUSES

• URHS TRANSPORT HERITAGE FESTIVAL
  Boonton NJ URHS.org

CONFERENCES

• NJ Transaction
  Tropicana Hotel and Conference Center, Atlantic City, NJ NJ Transaction

SPECIAL TRAINS

• Operation Toy Train
• Please see their website ( below) for further information.
  Operation Toy Train, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that operates a special annual collection train in northern New Jersey and southern New York during the first two weekends of December. Each year, the train collects over 25,000 donated toys for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Foundation, which redistributes them to underprivileged children within the collection area. operationtoytrain.org/ OpToyTrain

MODEL RAILROAD DISPLAYS / OPEN HOUSES

• Delaware and Susquehanna Model Railroad Club
  535 Station Avenue, Haddon Heights, NJ 08035
  Facebook

• Model Railroad Club Inc
  295 Jefferson Ave, Union, NJ 07083
  tmrci.org

  

  Jon Venckus and Evan at the OL booth at Model Railroad Club, Inc

• Somerset County 4-H Trainmasters
  310 Milltown Rd, Bridgewater, New Jersey 08807
  Facebook

NJ OL Safety Partners

Railroad Sponsors:

• Consolidated Rail Corporation CONRAIL
• CSX Transportation CSX
• Norfolk Southern Railway NSCorp
• New York Susquehanna and Western Railway NYS&W
• New Jersey Railroad Association and its Member Railroads NJRRA @_newjerseyrra

• Belvidere & Delaware River Railroad BDRV
• Black River and Western BRW
• Dover & Delaware River Railroad DD
• Dover & Rockaway River Railroad DRRV
• Cape May & Seashore Line CMSL
• New York New Jersey Rail, LLC NYNJ
• Raritan Central Railway RCRY
• SMS Rail Service SLRS
• Southern Railroad of New Jersey (SRNJ)
• Winchester & Western W&W

Corporate Sponsors:

• CBIZ Borden Perlman McRAIL
• Focused Technology Solutions FOCUSED
• KS Engineers P.C. KSE
• The Posner Foundation of Pittsburg Posner
• Railroad Construction Company, Inc RCC
• ReLTEK, LLC ReLTEK
• R L Banks and Associates, Inc RLBA

Additional Safety Partners:

• GoRail GORAIL @GoRail
• Monmouth Junction Volunteer Fire Department MJVFD
• Norfolk Southern Operation Awareness & Response NS Haz Mat
• TransCaer (Transportation Community Awareness Emergency Response) TransCaer

• New Jersey Department of Transportation NJ DoT
• New Jersey Transit NJTransit
• Federal Railroad Administration FRA FRA Safety Data
• National Railroad Passenger Corporation

• Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
• Smart - Transportation Division
• New Jersey Transportation Conference and Expo NJ Transaction

• United Railroad Historical Society and its member organizations URHS.org
• Operation Toy Train operationtoytrain.org

• Delaware and Susquehanna Model Railroad Club dsmrrc.org Facebook
• Maywood Station Museum maywoodstation.com
• Model Railroad Club Inc, Union, NJ tmrci.org
• New York, Susquehanna and Western Technical and Historical Society NYS&WTHS
• Somerset County 4-H Trainmasters Facebook

NJ OL Statistics

(email: user@example.com)

Billboard outside Atlantic City Starbucks Coffee Shop
Trespass Dashboard
FRA Highway Rail Collisions 2009-2019
Preliminary New Jersey Rail Crossing and Trespass Statistics, 2018 vs. 2019

New Jersey Operation Lifesaver Names Foran State Coordinator

June 28th, 2021
The Board of Directors of New Jersey Operation LifeSaver (NJOL) has announced the appointment of Barbara Foran as the State Coordinator, effective immediately. MS Foran, who has been with NJOL for five years, is the Diagnostic Team Leader in the Structural and Railroad Engineering Services Unit at the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDoT). In her new role at NJOL MS Foran will be responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the program, overseeing volunteer recruitment and training, scheduling, and special event planning.

MS Foran replaces Todd Hirt, the Supervising Engineer in the Bureau of Structural & Railroad Engineering Services at New Jersey Department of Transportation, who is retiring after 35 years with the department.

New Jersey Operation Lifesaver is a not-for-profit (501c3) corporation established in 1978 under the laws of the State of New Jersey as a public safety education and awareness organization dedicated to reducing collisions, fatalities and injuries at highway-rail crossings and trespassing on or near New Jersey’s railroad tracks. NJOL promotes rail safety through public awareness campaigns and provides safety presentations to schools, driver education classes, and community audiences, and specialized programs for professional drivers, emergency responders, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and others. NJOL is a member of the New Jersey Railroad Association.

For further information contact Michael Allen At 609-929-6421 or NJOL_MEA@earthlink.net. To schedule an event or a presentation contact Barbara Foran at 609-963-1304 or Barbara.Foran@dot.nj.gov.
https://community.oli.org/state/nj#about https://www.facebook.com/OpLifesaverNJ

Cooperative Emergency Responder Training

NEW JERSEY RAILROAD LAW ENFORCEMENT GUIDE

• Produced for NJOL by Special Agent Tom Jedic of the Norfolk Southern Police and Lisa Tackach of Railroad Construction Company, Inc., this Law Enforcement Guide is intended to assist New Jersey Law Enforcement personnel when investigating railroad-related crimes; answering calls for service or conducting motor vehicle investigationson railroad property.
  NEW JERSEY RAILROAD LAW ENFORCEMENT GUIDE

NS HazMat Safety Train

Norfolk Southern put a dedicated safety train in service with a locomotive, 2 box car classrooms, 4 tank cars, and 2 specially equipped flat cars to provide hands-on training.
The training sessions include the following topics: Safety on Railroad Property; Rail Shipping Documents; Rail Equipment Identification; Rail Tank Cars; Locomotive Fires; Flammable Liquid Unit Trains; Incident Response Procedures; Working with Railroad Officials; and, the AskRail Mobile App.
NSSOAR

TRANSCAER

TRANSCAER® (Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response) is a voluntary national outreach effort that focuses on assisting communities to prepare for and to respond to a possible hazardous material transportation incident. TRANSCAER® members consist of volunteer representatives from the chemical manufacturing, transportation, distributor, and emergency response industries, as well as the government.
TRANSCAER

The Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh Renews Critical Funding to Operation Lifesaver, Inc.

Washington, D.C. (February 6, 2019) – Millions of Americans will learn more about staying safe near trains from Operation Lifesaver, Inc. (OLI) thanks to a generous donation from the Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh.
OLI is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to saving lives by empowering the public to make safer choices near tracks and trains.
The funds will support four projects.
OLI will work with outside experts to understand, and appropriately communicate, suicide prevention initiatives. The goal is to effectively communicate about the sensitive subject with the public, partners and the media. The nonprofit will leverage the Federal Railroad Administration’s Trespass and Suicide Dashboard to target locations throughout the United States and tailor prevention messages to those communities.
Henry Posner III, chairman of the Iowa Interstate Railroad and Railroad Development Corporation and a trustee of the Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh, stated that the Posner Foundation was proud to support the work of OLI in both its traditional goals of reducing fatalities and injuries at highway-rail grade crossings and on railroad rights-of-way, and the emerging field of suicide prevention.
The grant also funds the distribution of a public service announcement (PSA) about Emergency Notification System signs. The campaign will alert Americans to the existence of the newer, blue and white, signs posted at railroad crossings. They’re designed to help those experiencing emergencies at railroad crossings. The signs offer a phone number to call to reach railroad dispatchers, as well as location information, so approaching trains may be stopped. The PSA will be digitally distributed to news outlets throughout the country.
Other projects supported by the gift include additional resources for a competitive grant program that funds public education activities conducted by Operation Lifesaver State Programs and a new program to further support rail safety volunteer efforts throughout the United States.
“Our goal is to get to zero incidents at railroad crossings and along railroad tracks – zero fatalities and zero injuries. The driving force for this organization is saving lives and reducing preventable crossing, and trespass, incidents. This generous gift will make a tremendous impact on our ability to share our valuable safety messages,” says OLI Executive Director Rachel Maleh.
Railroad Development Corp. has supported Operation Lifesaver over the years, ranging from Iowa Interstate employees’ service as community outreach volunteers, to Estonian Railways’ support of Operation Lifesaver Estonia.
“We invite you to get in touch with Operation Lifesaver State Coordinators to find out about the great initiatives happening in your state. Our website, oli.org, has information about your state program, as well as a range of rail safety education resources. You can also connect with us on the social networks,” says Maleh.
@OpLifesaverNJ #NJOL @_newjersyrra #njrra #StopLookListen #TheTrainWillWin