Remember Antonis “Tony” Anastasopoulos, a Montclair High teenager killed by an NJ Transit train

Remember Antonis “Tony” Anastasopoulos, a Montclair High teenager killed by an NJ Transit train

The parents of a Montclair teen killed in a collision with an NJ Transit train six years ago will have another day in court. An appeals court has ruled in favor of the Anastasopoulos family, whose negligence lawsuit against NJT was previously dismissed. From The Star-Ledger:

The parents of Antonis “Tony” Anastasopoulos, a Montclair High teenager killed by an NJ Transit train while crossing a railroad trestle five years ago, can proceed with a negligence case in the death of their son, a state appeals court ruled yesterday.
The three-judge panel ruled that Superior Court Judge Marie Simonelli, sitting in Newark, applied the wrong legal standard when she issued a summary judgment dismissing the allegation that there was “more than enough time” for the engineer to stop the train and avoid the tragedy.

“He thought the kids were playing chicken or something of that nature,” said E. Drew Britcher, the attorney for the parents, Francine and Petros Anastasopoulos. “We have all the black box data.”
That mindset, he said yesterday, resulted in a critical delay in applying the commuter train’s emergency brakes.
“He could clearly have avoided this accident if he had followed the proper protocols,” Britcher said.