Investigators’ Message Is Clear: Stay Off the Tracks : Metrolink: After the fifth death, rail officials say they can’t do much more to improve safety along the routes.

As investigators Thursday pieced together the details of the fifth fatality involving a Metrolink train in four months, railroad authorities said there are few safety measures they can implement to prevent accidents involving people who walk or sit on unguarded tracks.

Said Jacki Bacharach, a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees Metrolink: “People don’t go sitting on the freeway and they shouldn’t sit on the tracks.”

Apolinar Arellano, 32, of Sun Valley was struck and killed Wednesday night while sitting on the tracks near San Fernando Road and Sunland Avenue in Sun Valley, police said. The train, traveling at more than 60 m.p.h., had just left Burbank en route to Santa Clarita when it struck Arellano, throwing him about 250 feet, police said.

The train’s engineer, whose name was not released, was also at the controls of the Metrolink train that hit a dump truck at an unguarded crossing Nov. 25, killing driver Jaime Farias, 37, of Los Angeles.

Dave Watson, chief investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said several national studies on rail accidents have concluded that rail authorities can do little to prevent injuries and fatalities involving pedestrians who wander in front of moving trains.

Even reducing train speed may not prevent accidents, he said, because anecdotal evidence indicates that motorists and pedestrians become impatient with slower trains and may be more likely to try to outrun the trains or skirt around lower crossing guards.

“There isn’t a whole lot that you can do,” he said.

Although the engineer had reported that he saw Arellano and four other men sitting on the tracks apparently drinking alcohol, police said it is unclear why he did not jump off the tracks as did the other men.

“I don’t know if he was unconscious or what,” Los Angeles Police Lt. Charles Kunz said. “Any comment about why he did not get up and run is pure speculation.”

Determination of the official cause of death is awaiting results of an autopsy, which may include a toxicology test, he said.

Peter Hidalgo, a Metrolink spokesman, said that even installing a fence or wall along the tracks would be an impractical way to reduce such accidents because the system is planned to eventually operate over 400 miles and serve 70 stations, more than three times its present scope--which would necessitate more than 800 miles of barriers.

On the 22-mile Metro Blue Line that connects downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach, there have been seven deaths and 40 people injured in more than 100 accidents since the system opened in July, 1990. But Hidalgo said comparisons between the two systems are flawed because Metrolink is a heavy-rail technology and the Blue Line is light rail.

The number of deaths involving Metrolink is not out of line with those of other heavy-rail lines, such as freight systems, he said.

He also noted that two of the previous deaths involved men who police believe committed suicide by stepping in front of trains in two separate incidents, and another involved a man who tripped on the tracks while trying to outrun a train.

Carolynne Born, a spokeswoman for Southern Pacific railroad, said the only precaution is education for those who live around active rail lines. She noted that Metrolink officials are participating in Operation Life Saver, a program designed to increase public awareness of the potential dangers around tracks.

As part of Operation Life Saver, Metrolink officials participate in rail safety lessons taught at elementary schools along the lines. In addition, they have mailed about a million pamphlets with safety tips to residents living within 3 miles of the three Metrolink routes.

“We are continuing to evaluate the line and what we can do to make it safer,” said Bacharach of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “But people just have to know that they are active tracks and are not a playground.”