Blue Line Has the Most Pedestrian Accidents

By DOUGLAS P. SHUIT

Oct. 22, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Los Angeles’ Metro Blue Line trains had more accidents involving pedestrians last year than any other light rail system in the state, the Public Utilities Commission reported Thursday.

The eight pedestrians who died and five who were injured by Blue Line trains represented 43% of the pedestrian casualties reported by light rail systems in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Sacramento and the Santa Clara Valley, the commission said in its annual report on railroad accidents throughout California.

Those numbers are comparable to 1997, when the Blue Line, which runs a 22-mile route from downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach, had 46% of the pedestrian casualties, the highest in the state that year.

Although it showed a slight improvement, the report said the Blue Line again had the state’s highest rate of light rail accidents with motor vehicles per train mile driven.

The Blue Line reported 31 accidents with motor vehicles in 1998, compared to 34 the year before.

San Francisco’s MUNI system had one more accident, but because its light rail trains run more than twice the number of miles, its rate per 100,000 miles was less than half that of Los Angeles County.

The study underscores a problem that local officials have acknowledged for many years--one that balances financial concerns against the many dangers imposed by running a fast, quiet light rail system along city streets.

As opposed to elevated trains or underground systems, which are much safer but also far more expensive, the Blue Line runs mostly at street level, at speeds up to 55 mph. Its tracks go through some of Los Angeles County’s poorest and most densely populated communities, past low-income housing projects, parks and senior citizens centers, as well as warehouses and industrial plants.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the Blue Line, summarized the trade-off in a report on its Web site, calling light rail “a lower-cost solution to transit.”

But, the MTA added, “it introduces the potential for collisions to occur between motorists, pedestrians or bicyclists and the train.”

Responding to the study, MTA officials pointed to numerous steps they have taken to improve safety.

Those include installation of warning signals and traffic gates, placement of video cameras at key intersections to catch motorists who drive around closed gates, construction of special curbs to stop motor vehicles, and hanging pedestrian gates that slow down passengers running to catch a train.

The MTA pays local police agencies tens of millions of dollars to patrol the Blue Line tracks and finances special motorcycle enforcement teams to catch motorists driving through signals or pedestrians running through them. The MTA has also sponsored legislation to hike fines for motorists driving around closed gates at intersections and pushed to have questions about light rail trains included on written examinations for driver’s licenses.

As for comparison with other cities, MTA officials say Los Angeles is unique.

“It is easy to compare accidents, but the fact of the matter is that from the time you leave downtown Los Angeles until you get to downtown Long Beach, you are traveling through the most intensely traveled and inhabited transit corridors I think in North America,” said Paul Lennon, managing director of safety and security for the Blue Line.

Many of the line’s accidents have been caused by pedestrians ignoring warning lights or motorists turning left into the path of a train, safety experts say.

The commission report said the Blue Line had 2.11 accidents for every 100,000 rail miles traveled.

Statewide, the PUC determined that 47% of all accidents between light rail trains and motor vehicles were caused by drivers making a left turn into the path of a train.

Ken Koss, director of the commission’s rail safety and carriers division, said the MTA has taken steps to create a safer system.

The PUC said 132 pedestrians statewide died in 1998 in rail-related accidents, counting light rail and heavy rail. The report said 106 of the deaths resulted from people trespassing on railroad or transit rights of way while engaged in “jogging, walking, playing or riding bicycles on or along railroad tracks.”

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Pedestrian vs. Rail

Los Angeles’ Metro Blue Line trains had more accidents involving pedestrians than any of the state’s other light rail systems last year.

Rail System: Metro Blue Line

Accidents: 14

Killed: 8

Injured: 5

Rail System: Sacramento Regional Transit District

Accidents: 2

Killed: 1

Injured: 1

Rail System: San Diego Trolley Inc.