Caught the 8:44pm from Belmar tonight to head back to the city.
I dozed off and woke up a few minutes after 9:15 and noticed the train was stopped and I could see the lights from Monmouth Park off in the distance. Half awake, my eyes drifted downward and I saw what looked like a headlight on the ground next to the train. And in fact, it was a headlight. There was a white car facing backward on the adjacent train track immediately outside my window.
At this point a cop car sped up to the road next to the train. And then another, and then a fire engine, and another cop car. Within fifteen minutes, there were seven cop cars, three fire engines and an ambulance there.
Apparently the driver wasn't in the car when it was hit by the train, but I could see a cop talking to some people around the car suggesting they were the owners (they did not appear to be injured).
It took about an hour for a tow truck to remove the car from the track, after which the train pulled away. From the way the firemen kept looking under the car with flashlights, it would appear that the midsection of the car was resting on the rail such that left two wheels were not in contact with the ground.
I finally walked through my door at 11:45pm tonight. Ugh.
I'll have to check the New Jersey papers tomorrow.
