Residents Want Curb on Train Whistles

In a showdown over what constitutes public safety and a public nuisance, more than 100 residents are asking the city to pass an ordinance they hope will reduce the number of times passenger and freight trains blow their whistles at railroad crossings.

The City Council is scheduled to consider the proposal Monday. The ordinance would ban the blowing of train whistles within city limits except when the engineer determines there is imminent danger to life or property.

But Assistant City Atty. Richard Laysaid he will suggest that the council reject the proposal because it would conflict with state law.

Lay said the law mandates that train engineers have discretion over when to blow whistles no matter the circumstances. The whistles are an added safety precaution to warn motorists and pedestrians of oncoming trains.

Santa Ana resident Cuyler Wenberg, who helped lead the petition drive, said those cautionary whistle blows do little to deter motorists and pedestrians anxious to beat the trains by maneuvering around crossing-guard arms.

Wenberg, a resident of the Villa Grande Mobile Home Estates, said he and his neighbors signed the petition because they are subjected to train whistles throughout the morning, day and night. Wenberg said the mobile homes sit about a quarter of a mile from two railroad crossings.

The city has authority to pass an anti-whistle ordinance, Wenberg said, because Placentia passed a similar one in the late 1970s.

Lay countered that the Placentia ordinance was passed before a 1986 state attorney general’s opinion stating that train engineers have sole discretion.