Riding the Rails for Safety

After a farm laborer was killed when an Amtrak train slammed into his truck last year near Moorpark, California Highway Patrol Capt. Scott MacGregor knew something had to be done to educate workers.

He teamed with local law enforcement and transportation agencies to launch an educational campaign through Operation Lifesaver, a nationwide organization that promotes railroad safety.

The campaign was on display Friday when representatives of nine agencies boarded the “Farm Worker’s Railroad Safety Train” and stopped at three farms east of Camarillo to make presentations to about 400 workers.

“This is a group effort saying, ‘Let’s try to do what we can to prevent another tragedy from happening,’ ” said MacGregor, the CHP’s Ventura-area commander.

Other organizations involved included Metrolink, Amtrak, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Union Pacific, the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe railroads, the Federal Railroad Administration and the California Public Utilities Commission.

The farm workers, many of whom have memories of accidents around the sprawling fields in which they toil, listened to the speakers and clapped politely at the end.

“It’s good to get a reminder,” said Andres Vallejo, a forklift driver at Muranaka Farms, recalling a fatal accident near there in 1998. “Sometimes when we are in a hurry we forget things we should be thinking about.”

The presentations focused on crossings on private property, which have been the common sites of accidents involving farm workers, organizers said.

Private crossings are particularly dangerous, officials said, because they lack the lights, bells and gates required by law at public crossings.

Private crossings typically only display a stop sign and a white sign with black writing that, in part, reads: “Private Crossing . . . Subject to Control by Owner.”

Safety devices beyond that--which can be negotiated between property owners and railroad companies--can be costly. A gate can cost up to $200,000, officials said.

MacGregor also wanted to emphasize railroad safety in general. In addition to the farm worker killed near Moorpark, he said two other people have been killed at private crossings during the past three years.

The safety train’s first stop was at the Hagle Tree Farm, where one of the speakers was Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long.

“We wish to really take care and educate our workers which are so vital to our industry,” she said.

Long and the other officials boarded the train and rolled east to Underwood Farms, where about 300 pepper pickers had assembled by the tracks at the edge of a field.

Speakers pointed out the difference between public and private crossings. And they urged workers to stop 15 feet before crossing tracks and to “Look, Listen and Live”--Operation Lifesaver’s slogan.

Jesus Ojeda, an Operation Lifesaver speaker, said railroad companies planned in the next few months to install signs at eight private crossings displaying a toll-free emergency number. Such numbers and emergency call boxes are standard at public crossings, he said.

Those signs “are a good idea,” said Juvenal Martinez, a worker at Underwood Farms. “Sometimes people get stuck on the tracks.”

Underwood workers are no strangers to the accidents the campaign is trying to prevent.

In 1995, three Underwood workers were killed right before the holidays, said Craig Underwood, the farm’s owner.

Jim Roberts, Underwood’s operations manager, told workers about the accident as part of the presentation.

“It’s real personal,” he said. “My memory is burying these people. . . . It was a difficult time for the company.”

Underwood also recalled the three men who died.”We all had to go see their families--they had babies at home,” he said.