PUC Rejects Ex-Inspector’s Trolley Claim

A claim filed by a former track inspector for the San Diego Trolley alleging serious defects in the tracks has been rejected by the state Public Utilities Commission on technical grounds, state officials said.

The PUC oversees safety matters concerning mass transit. Edward Buck, 40, of San Diego, alleges that, by failing to correct the safety hazards, the PUC and the Metropolitan Transit Development Board effectively forced him to resign as a trolley inspector three years ago and thus violated his civil rights. Civil rights violations do not come under the jurisdiction of the utilities commission, said commission attorney Harvey Morris.

Buck said he would pursue his claim in state Superior Court. A similar claim he filed in U.S. District Court three years ago is still pending.

Transit officials, meanwhile, brushed aside Buck’s allegations of safety defects.

“We deny they constituted any sort of serious threat,” said Jack Limber, general counsel for the transit board. “We are regularly inspected, and certainly if safety hazards existed, they would have been corrected by federal and state agencies.

“We believe that the line is perfectly safe and constructed in accordance with the proper standards,” Limber added.

Buck disagrees. On a tour of tracks running from the Santa Fe Depot to San Ysidro, Buck pointed out what he said were holes in the street alongside the track, misalignment in the rails and switches, insufficient fill under the ties, lack of bumpers at the end of the tracks, and rails bowed from the heat. The defects, he said, cause unnecessary “rocking and rolling” of the train and could cause it to derail.

In fact, train operators are ordered to slow down in certain areas of the track, Limber said. Where heat causes the tracks to stretch and bow, the trolley company performs periodic maintenance, Limber added.

The track does not meet federal standards, Buck maintained, and construction errors and lax maintenance are to blame.

The trolley operators “claim that because they haven’t had a major accident, everything is OK,” Buck said. “It’s a miracle--but it’s just a matter of time.”

Buck, who worked for eight years building and inspecting railroad tracks with the Boston and Maine Railroad in addition to working two years as an inspector for the San Diego Trolley, is now a security guard.

Judging by the trolley’s record in the last fiscal year, its riders are not overly concerned about the perils Buck describes. Ridership hit a daily record on July 5, with 24,475 patrons. In the last fiscal year, the trolley carried nearly 6 million riders--an 11% increase over last year.

Trolley Managing Director Langley Powell has stressed the system’s “good track record” in accidents--more than 60 in four years--as well as in finances. The crashes with cars, buses and pedestrians have not been the fault of trolley drivers, Powell has said.