Racing With Death Is Common at Blue Line Crossings : Danger: Staking out problem intersections, deputies average 86 tickets a day. Many offenders say they thought they were safe.

Each week an average of about 600 drivers race across Blue Line tracks and dodge crossing gates or make illegal turns in front of oncoming trains, according to a Sheriff’s Department report released Monday.

Despite warning lights, bells, train whistles and descending gates, 7,760 drivers and pedestrians were ticketed for crossing in front of oncoming Blue Line trains during a 90-day period ending in September, officials said.

The largest group of violators--about 40%--told sheriff’s deputies that they had darted in front of the oncoming train because they “thought it was safe.” Another 28% said they had not seen any warning signals, and 25% said they were in a hurry.

“The volume of people who are willing to risk their lives at these crossings for these few extra seconds--it just amazes me,” said Lou Hubaud, director of safety and security for Rail Construction Corp., a subsidiary of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

From June 7 to Sept. 4, the LACTC rail safety task force posted 10 deputies to monitor “problem” intersections. To snare violators, deputies sat in patrol cars that were hidden from view. Under the program, deputies wrote an average of 86 tickets a day--up from the usual 16 citations.

Capt. Frank Vadurro, commanding officer of the Transit Services Bureau, which patrols the Blue Line, said the program will be continued through June using eight sheriff’s deputies. The deputies will be deployed mostly along a 16-mile corridor, from Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles south to Willow Avenue in Long Beach, where trains reach higher speeds.

Of the 7,760 people cited for crossing violations, 1,500 were given a short questionnaire which asked why they had illegally crossed and where they were going. The largest group, 40%, said they were en route to work or school.

“People are just in a rush to get the kids to school, to get wherever they are going. Everybody thinks they can beat the train, not realizing it’s coming at 55 m.p.h.,” Vadurro said. “The bells go on, and the gates go, and we are only inconveniencing the drivers for 55 seconds. There’s absolutely no excuse for that kind of behavior.”

Since its start-up in July, 1990, the 22-mile-long Blue Line has been plagued by more than 130 accidents at rail crossings. Eight people have been killed and 56 injured, all of them motorists or pedestrians. Indeed, the Blue Line’s troubled past has become a legacy that other train lines have sought to avoid. Before the Metrolink commuter rail line began service in October, transit officials launched a safety campaign to alert people to the hazards of trying to race a train to a crossing.

Even so, Metrolink had its first fatal accident at a crossing in November, after only one month of service.

Transit officials reviewed the Sheriff’s Department’s crossing study Monday at a Rail Construction Corp. meeting, evaluating it in light of the recent Metrolink accident in which a dump truck driver was killed. Officials do not know whether the driver in the Nov. 25 accident at a Pacoima private crossing failed to see the train.

Blue Line officials have reduced the rate of train accidents each year--a result, they say, of a safety campaign and heightened public awareness. But the crossing report illustrated a need to step up enforcement and safety measures.

In an effort to further reduce train accidents involving motorists and pedestrians, transit officials say they will request additional safeguards, such as increased presence of deputies to patrol the intersections, use of cameras to photograph violators and their license plates, increased fines for violators, who now usually pay a $55 citation, and a bilingual rail safety program.