Children Are Focus of Rail Safety Drive

Concerned about child safety, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority today is launching a countywide campaign aimed at teaching schoolchildren that playing near tracks is dangerous.

“Our function here is to try to put an end to all train accidents,” said Abdul Zohbi, manager of system safety for the MTA. “If we manage to save the life of one child, then our goal is met. One incident is one incident too many.”

The campaign kicks off this afternoon with Los Angeles Galaxy soccer player Mauricio Cienfuegos and MTA officials on the median between the railroad tracks and Markham Middle School in Watts, one of about 50 Los Angeles County schools that MTA officials say are near Metro Blue Line train tracks.

Markham Principal Elizabeth Norris said the school tries to supervise the tracks, but monitors cannot be there all the time.

“Children tend to want to take shortcuts, but that’s dangerous,” she said. “When you have that much track unprotected, without a barrier, it’s very difficult.”

MTA officials said they hope to reach all children--not just those attending schools near their tracks--by posting safety messages on buses and billboards.

In addition, MTA railroad safety experts will speak at schools and organize poster and essay contests. Cienfuegos, the soccer player, will be the campaign spokesman.

Metrolink, which operates in Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and San Diego counties, also has a school safety program. There are 1,500 schools within two miles of their tracks, Metrolink officials said.

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Vaneza Vera often sees children running along, darting across and throwing rocks over Metrolink tracks as she walks her 7-year-old son home from Valerio Street Elementary School in Van Nuys.

“They are not going straight to the house, looking both sides or listening for the train,” Vera said. “It’s very dangerous and very unsafe. Those parents who are working, they trust their kids. But there’s no way to trust the kids--they’re just kids.”

Metrolink representatives visit hundreds of schools each year to talk about trespassing and safe crossings, spokeswoman Claudia Keith said. To get the point across, they show a video featuring a boy who lost his leg and a mother whose son was killed when he was playing on tracks.

This year, Metrolink safety officials are targeting schools in Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, Covina, Santa Ana, Irvine, Rialto and Fontana, said Edward Pederson, manager of safety and security.

“They put themselves in jeopardy,” Pederson said of some children. “They’re doing something illegal. We’re afraid they’re going to put themselves in harm’s way.”

California leads the nation in railroad trespassing fatalities. There were 86 such deaths in the state in 1999, according to the Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis.