Police Launch Rail Crackdown : Metrolink: A safety program is aimed at educating the public and lowering the accident rate at crossings between Chatsworth and Burbank.

If the threat of death or serious injuries is insufficient to keep motorists and pedestrians from skirting lowered crossing gates when a Metrolink train approaches, police have another deterrent: a fine and possible loss of driving privileges.

On Monday, police and state rail safety officials launched a crackdown on violators at railroad crossings between Chatsworth and Burbank--one of several campaigns that will be executed randomly at railroad crossings throughout the Metrolink system.

Under the crackdown, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and the Burbank Police Department were placed on a non-scheduled, empty Metrolink train that rolled between stations while officers parked near railroad crossings watched for violators. The officers on the train and on the streets kept in touch using portable radios.

Although Monday’s efforts netted only two violators, officials from the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees train safety, said the operation was considered a success because it helped educate the public to the dangers presented by the trains.

“It’s not so much a sting operation as an education operation,” said James McInerney, the utilities commission’s Southern California supervisor for the rail safety program, dubbed Operation Lifesaver.

Since the safety program began in 1979, the number of railroad crossing accidents statewide has dropped from 693 in 1978 to 309 in 1990. The program also includes safety lessons for students in school. But McInerney said he fears that the expansion of rail transit in Southern California--including the start of Metrolink and the Metro Blue Line services--may lead to a deadly increase in rail crossing accidents.

“Twenty-five percent of the time, cars crash into the side of a train,” he said as he rode on a blue and white Metrolink train. “What does that tell you? It tells you that people are not paying attention.”

Although accidents have decreased, fatalities have increased from 33 deaths in 1980 to 44 in 1990, the most recent year for which the utilities commission has records.

On Monday, Los Angeles police officers issued citations to two motorists who drove around the lowered crossing gates near the Chatsworth station.

The citations carry a fine ranging from $90 to $250. But if a driver has an extensive record of violations, a judge can revoke the motorist’s license for up to six months.

Last month, police participating in a similar crackdown at railroad crossings between Pomona and Baldwin Park netted 34 violators. Police issued another 54 citations during a crackdown last year on the Blue Line between Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles.

After the crackdown Monday morning in Chatsworth, the train rolled into Burbank, where it was boarded by Burbank Police Officer Chris Topolovich, who watched for violators from the forward window of the train while reporting what he saw into a portable radio.

Meanwhile, Topolovich’s partner, Officer Harry Mintey, raced ahead of the train on motorcycle to the next railroad crossing, all the time listening to Topolovich describe the scene on his radio.

Near a railroad crossing at Empire and Vanowen streets, Mintey parked behind a fence along a driveway and watched. When the warning lights at the crossing began to blink and the gates started to lower, two cars quickly dashed across. But once the gates were down, traffic came to a halt.

“The chances are not that great of catching someone doing something stupid in the daytime,” Mintey said with a shrug.