Pedestrians, Drivers Ticketed in Blue Line Safety Campaign

A concerted effort by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to crack down on scofflaws has resulted in a record number of tickets and has helped drive down the number of deaths this year along the Blue Line train tracks, authorities said.

So far this year, three people have died along those tracks, compared with 10 in 1998, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The most recent fatality involved 13-year-old Gilberto Reynaga, who was struck by a train last month while playing near the tracks.

His death brought to 46 the number of people who have died along the tracks since the line, which runs between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach, began operating in 1990. That is one of the worst records of any railway in the state.

Comparing the Blue Line with light-rail systems in San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento and San Jose, the state Public Utilities Commission has reported that in 1997, the last full year for which figures are available, the Los Angeles-Long Beach system had the highest ratio of accidents and casualties to miles traveled.

Local transit authorities say the drop-off in deaths this year is in large part due to a show of force by sheriff’s deputies, who are using traffic tickets and warnings to try to change high-risk behavior. Among the behaviors deputies are attempting to stop: engaging in footraces with trains or driving past flashing red lights and around lowered barrier gates.

“All these deaths were avoidable,” said county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who represents much of the southern Los Angeles County area served by the Blue Line and is chairwoman of the MTA governing board.

Most of the accidents are caused by motorists or pedestrians who are caught where they shouldn’t be when a train passes, according to Burke, as well as investigators for the MTA and Sheriff’s Department.

Despite nine years’ experience with the Blue Line, local residents still have much to learn about the deadly danger of trains, Burke said.

“We were so long without trains that this is still a new phenomenon,” she said. “You have a whole generation with no experience with trains.”

Since 1990, pedestrians have represented the bulk of the fatalities, dying at twice the rate of motorists, authorities said. As a result, motorcycle officers are citing people on foot--issuing tickets for such things as jaywalking or trespassing--as well as those in cars.

“I see people running in front of trains, which astounds me,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Marc L. Klugman, head of the department’s transit enforcement unit. “People have to learn that if they challenge a train, the train is going to win every time. Every time.”

At a cost of $67 to $104 per ticket, the citations are a strong deterrent.

“On a good day, the deputies will write a ticket every 15 minutes,” said Sgt. Brad Wright, who heads the special eight-deputy motorcycle unit that does nothing but patrol the Blue Line tracks.

During July, deputies wrote 588 tickets for Blue Line-related violations, bringing the total for the year up to 5,459. Wright said vehicle code violations occur with such regularity along the Blue Line that officers on the special enforcement patrol sometimes write twice as many tickets during a shift as motorcycle officers assigned to normal traffic duty.

The stepped-up enforcement is tied in with education campaigns aimed at informing the public about the danger posed by a train traveling at 55 mph without the ability to stop quickly.

The Sheriff’s Department is also trying to give local residents a quick review of the law.

“It is illegal to be on railroad right of way any time unless you have business there,” said Klugman. “The law is real clear on that. People here don’t understand that. They’ve seen abandoned track for years and years and years. They’ve jogged along it, run their dogs along it, ridden their horses along it. All of a sudden they are finding law enforcement officers out there writing tickets for the same kind of activity.”

Aside from the enforcement and education campaigns, Burke said she felt engineering improvements might reduce fatalities.

She pointed out that a pedestrian bridge had long been planned for the 54th Street crossing in Los Angeles, very close to where Reynaga died, but had not been built because of funding shortages.

Burke also said she believes that many accidents could be avoided if there were more grade separations along the Blue Line, meaning either that tracks would be elevated over street traffic or that underpasses would be constructed to allow cars or pedestrians to pass below the tracks.

There hasn’t been a single life lost on the MTA’s Green Line tracks, which stretch between Norwalk and Redondo Beach, but that line is elevated and runs along the Century Freeway. There has been one death, a suicide, involving the underground Red Line.