Rail Crossing at Site of Fatal Crash to Be Closed : Metrolink: Six other unguarded roads that cross the track along the commuter train’s route also may be shut.

A railroad crossing where a fatal crash occurred between a Metrolink train and a dump truck will be closed and six other unguarded crossings along the commuter train’s route may be eliminated, federal and county rail officials said Monday.

The crash last Wednesday--the first for the month-old rail service--occurred at an unguarded private railroad crossing leading to a Los Angeles city street maintenance yard in Pacoima. The dump truck driver, Jaime Farias, 37, of Los Angeles, was killed and 12 rail passengers suffered minor injuries in the incident.

Preliminary investigations into the cause of the accident appear to rule out the possibility that Farias tried to outrun the train or that his truck stalled on the tracks, said David Watson, regional director of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident.

Authorities have reconstructed the accident to study the possibility that Farias’ vision of the oncoming train was blocked by a row of billboards or by brush along the tracks. The results will not be known for several days, Watson said.

State law requires that crossings into private property have stop signs on both sides of the tracks. But investigators have determined that only one stop sign was in place on the northeast side of the tracks, where it would be seen by drivers leaving the maintenance yard but not by those entering. The sign at the entrance is obscured by graffiti.

Metrolink officials said the crash gave urgency to their ongoing study of unguarded private rail crossings throughout the system’s 132 miles of track. If the six unguarded crossings cannot be eliminated, Metrolink officials said, they will try to work with private property owners to install warning lights or gates. Metrolink officials said they will also examine another four private crossings on the line that have gates or lights to see if the safety devices need to be upgraded.

In an interview with federal investigators Monday, George Sefick, the engineer of the train involved in the crash, said that Farias’ truck was traveling at 5 to 15 m.p.h. when it pulled in front of the speeding train, Watson said.

“It didn’t get stuck on the rail, I can tell you that,” he said.

He said it was possible that Farias saw the train but thought it was heading in the other direction because the locomotive was pushing the train instead of pulling it. But he downplayed that theory.

“It’s really not a worry,” he said. “People are able to tell the train is coming.”

Meanwhile, Metrolink officials said passenger counts indicate that the accident has not discouraged riders from continuing to use the service.

On Nov. 23--two days before the accident--66 passengers rode the 6:26 a.m. train from Santa Clarita to downtown Los Angeles, compared with 70 passengers on Monday. On the day of the accident, 75 passengers were on board.

“I believe the ridership has been basically steady,” David Solow, Metrolink’s executive deputy director, said.

Solow and Watson said the accident showed the train’s ability to withstand a high-speed crash with few passenger injuries and little damage.

The Metrolink train, traveling at 77 m.p.h., derailed after large metal parts of the truck became lodged under its wheels. But the train remained upright. Watson said that in similar rail crossing accidents that he has investigated, trains have flipped onto their sides after derailing.

After the 6:50 a.m. accident, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal Railroad Administration, the state Public Utilities Commission and the Los Angeles Police Department converged on the crossing off San Fernando Road near the Simi Valley Freeway.

City Councilman Nate Holden, a mayoral candidate and chairman of the council’s Transportation Committee, requested a city investigation of safety at unguarded rail crossings and a study to determine if Metrolink trains should travel more slowly in populated areas.

Since the accident, the unguarded crossing at Del Sur Street has been torn up and barriers placed to keep vehicles from crossing, Solow said. The crossing serves only the maintenance yard, where asphalt is recycled and stored. Farias was apparently on his way to load his truck with asphalt when the crash occurred.

There are 111 rail crossings along Metrolink’s three lines, including four on private property that have crossing gates and six with no safety devices.

The tracks, known as the Saugus Line, are owned by Southern Pacific Transportation Co. but Metrolink officials are negotiating to purchase the tracks by the end of this month, said Southern Pacific spokeswoman Carolynne Born.

In the meantime, she said, Southern Pacific has no objections to closing the Del Sur crossing or any other crossing not used much by the public.

But she said her company would look more closely at attempts to close a highly traveled private crossing.

Holden, who rode the same train Monday, said that from his observations he believed that brush growing along the tracks could have obstructed Farias’ view.