New Jersey Accident and Injury Law Blog : New Jersey Injury Lawyer & Attorney : The Grossman Law Firm : Serving Monmouth County, Bergen County

The family of a New Jersey man who was killed when he became trapped in the door of an NJ transit train and dragged to his death, has settled with the agency.

The family of John D’Agostino has settled its claim for $2.5 million.  On November 21^st 2006, D’Agostino was getting off a train at a Bradley Beach station, when the train door closed shut on his shoulder and arm. The train began to pull out of the station. D’Agostino began to scream for help, but to no avail.  The train gathered speed, dragging the 49-year-old man with it. D’Agostino was eventually dragged under the train, and killed.  

In December 2007, a Federal Railroad Administration released its investigation report into the accident. The report said that a bypass switch had been engaged in the locomotive at the time.  If it has been off, it would have likely prevented the train from moving with an open door.

The FRA also had severe criticism for the train’s conductor and assistant conductor. The two were not in their places at the time of the terrible accident, and failed to see D’Agostino trapped in the door and being dragged along. There have been other questions raised by the United Transportation Union Local 60 which represents conductors and assistant conductors, about whether the car doors were functioning properly at the time of accident. Investigations found no defects in the doors, edges, steps, or handholds.

Scott Grossman is a New Jersey personal injury lawyer representing injured victims of auto and truck accidents in Monmouth, Bergen, Passaic and Ocean Counties and across the state of New Jersey.

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For more than two years, Joseph Bozzelli managed to avoid justice after he struck a pedestrian, left his body on the roadside, and sped off. If it hadn’t been for the untiring efforts of the victim’s mother, Bozzelli would still have been hiding from the law. However, last week he was sentenced to three years in state prison for his involvement in Brain Lilley’s death.

Bozzelli had been charged with causing a death while driving with a suspended license, and leaving the scene of an accident. Bozzelli has also had his license suspended. In October, 2006, Lilley was walking on the road at 2 in the morning, when he was struck by a vehicle driven by Bozzelli. His neck was broken, and he died instantly. 

Bozzelli never stopped; not even to check if Lilley was alive. It was left to a passing driver who saw Lilley’s lifeless body lying by the roadside. Bozzelli was able to spend the next two years undetected by police, but he had not contended with the tenacity of Bozzelli’s mother Elizabeth, who never stopped looking for the man who was responsible for her son’s death. She distributed fliers asking for information about the accident. She even rented a billboard offering a reward for any information that could lead to her son’s killer. Finally in 2008, after an anonymous tip, Bozzelli was arrested.

However, prosecutors believe Bozzelli destroyed the vehicle he was driving, after the hit and run. Police could never find the vehicle, and there was no way of confirming if he was driving drunk that night. That’s why there were no charges of vehicular homicide against him.

Scott Grossman is a New Jersey wrongful death lawyer representing injured victims of auto accidents in Monmouth, Bergen, Passaic and Ocean Counties, and across the state of New Jersey.

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