Metrolink Evaluates 13 Private Crossings : Train safety: Fears of a lawsuit prompt officials to meet privately to discuss the November accident in Pacoima that killed a city truck driver.

Metrolink officials Friday discussed the Nov. 25 train accident in Pacoima that claimed the life of a Los Angeles city truck driver, saying they had to meet in private because they had been warned the rail agency was in jeopardy of being sued.

After the 30-minute private session, a top Metrolink executive said the Southern California Regional Rail Authority is continuing to evaluate the feasibility of closing or upgrading the safety systems at 13 private rail crossings like the one where the fatality occurred.

The executive, Bill Currier, director of operations for the authority, earlier told the 11-member rail agency board that federal safety officials have praised Metrolink for its rail crossing safety program.

On Nov. 25, city employee Jaime Farias, 37, was killed when the city truck he was driving was hit by an early morning Metrolink train traveling at 76 m.p.h. through Pacoima. City officials subsequently agreed to voluntarily close the crossing, which the city leased from Southern Pacific Railroad.

Helen Parker, legal counsel to the rail agency, said no lawsuit has been filed against the rail agency but that she still believed there was a “significant exposure to litigation.”

Each of the 13 private crossings are being evaluated to determine if they can be closed, if alternate access routes are available and if there is the possibility of installing “different types of warning devices” at crossings that must be kept open, Currier told reporters after the meeting.

“We can’t arbitrarily close them,” which “a lot of the time may require some funding,” Currier said.

Currier said he expected the rail authority to make decisions early next year about the private crossings.

Currier and Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo also said the accident had not shown that the train system operators need to adopt new procedures.

Meanwhile, Hidalgo said the agency has begun a new radio and TV advertising campaign underscoring the need for motorists and pedestrians to be watchful and exercise good judgment around the rail lines, particularly at the crossings.

Also under consideration is a proposed $30,000 campaign to mail safety literature to 800,000 households within a 3-mile radius of the Metrolink lines that run from Moorpark, Santa Clarita and Pomona to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.