Blue Line Beefs Up Safety Measures as Officials Try to Avert Collisions

Los Angeles County transportation officials, seeking to stem a rash of fatal collisions between Blue Line trolleys and automobiles, announced Friday that new lights would be added to the trolleys as part of a series of safety measures.

The new train lights, called “cyclops lights,” will be installed at the top of trolley engines so that they will be visible above picket fences along the line, said Neil Peterson, executive director of the county’s Transportation Commission, which oversees the safety and security of the 22-mile commuter line.

Peterson and other county officials said there also will be new public service announcements, toughened security at rail crossings--to prevent cars and pedestrians from ignoring lowered rail guards--and requests to railroad freight companies to alter their train schedules.

At least 17 accidents--and three fatalities--have occurred since the Los Angeles-to-Long Beach line began running last August. Transit officials and trolley engineers have complained that the high-speed trolleys are obstructed each day by cars accelerating through closed intersections, pedestrians and bicyclists illegally crossing the tracks and vehicles parked in front of oncoming trains.

The new lights will cost $100,000 and will be installed “as soon as possible,” said Norman Jester, the commission’s vice president of operations.

While announcing the new safety measures, transit officials defended the rail system’s existing safeguards.

“Every possible action that we could have taken has been taken,” Peterson said. “The (state) Public Utilities Commission sets strict safety standards and we have exceeded those standards.”

Peterson said that the new safety measures were “short term,” and might be expanded when a safety evaluation is completed by Nov. 12. He said that the county also hopes to build a network of volunteer crossing guards to monitor dangerous Blue Line intersections on Halloween night.

“The issue isn’t whether our safety devices are adequate,” Peterson said. “It’s educating the public and making them aware that these trains run up to 50 m.p.h. and can be very dangerous.”

But earlier Friday, an attorney for the family of a woman who was killed by a Blue Line train on Sept. 19 leveled new criticism at rail officials in the form of a lawsuit. The suit seeks $22 million in damages from the county and state.

Donald H. Cohen, a lawyer for the 11 children of Rosa Cebellos, a Watts woman who was struck and killed by a trolley as she crossed tracks near her home, claimed that the rail line provided only “inadequate notice, inadequate warning, malfunctioning lights and gates and dangerous conditions.” Cohen said that “no danger or pedestrian signs are located at the crossing” where Cebellos was killed.

Transit officials have said that some motorists try to slip through closed rail crossings on the assumption that they are maneuvering past slow freight trains. Instead, they risk collisions with the trolleys.

That was the case Wednesday night, investigators said, when Graciela Marinero, 26, of Los Angeles, and Willie Torres, her 4-year-old son, were killed when their car was struck at a crossing near 41st Street and Long Beach Avenue. Only 12 hours later, four Cambodian immigrants were hurt when their car collided with a trolley on Burnett Street.

Blue Line engineers have complained repeatedly about illegal crossings, claiming that they have witnessed as many as six on a single Los Angeles-to-Long Beach run. On one Thursday afternoon trolley round trip, there were eight illegal crossings or violations, ranging from pedestrians hurrying across a closed intersection to two vehicles parked on the tracks.