Car-Train Crashes a Coincidence, PUC Report Says

It was purely by chance that a rash of accidents early this year occurred along a rail corridor in the eastern San Fernando Valley, according to a report released by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The report, which reviewed five vehicle-train accidents in Los Angeles County in January, also blames motorists for causing the crashes. In each case, a driver either disobeyed traffic laws or was committing suicide, said the report, which was presented to the state Legislature late last week.

The investigation by the PUC, which oversees the safety of California train crossings, found no wrongdoing by rail operators and no evidence of equipment malfunctions at any of the five crossings, four of which were along Metrolink’s Antelope Valley Line tracks next to San Fernando Road.

Although conceding that four accidents in the San Fernando corridor in a single month is an unusually high number, the report said that the incidents were “a matter of coincidence.”

The findings were not surprising to Metrolink, which provided data for the analysis that also incorporated police reports and witness interviews.

“It’s because of incidents like these that we place so much emphasis on safety education programs,” said Metrolink spokeswoman Sharon Gavin.

But others criticized the PUC report for stating the obvious.

“It’s very shallow. It doesn’t address all the issues of what causes an accident,” said Najmedin Meshkati, a USC engineering professor who has seen the report.

The PUC failed to investigate “why people make mistakes” and what might confuse drivers or cause them to take risks, said Meshkati, an expert on rail crossing accidents.

Iwona Wysocki, daughter-in-law of a professional truck driver who was killed after he drove into the path of a Metrolink train in Burbank, said something at the Buena Vista Street crossing must have caused her father-in-law to make “a terrible mistake.”

The Jan. 6 accident, which killed Jacek “Jack” Wysocki instantly, also injured 34 people on the train. One train passenger later died of her injuries.

The southbound train was traveling 79 mph when Wysocki’s truck turned left from San Fernando Boulevard onto Buena Vista Street, past lowered crossing gates, according to the PUC. The train’s engineer saw Wysocki before the crash and tried to apply emergency brakes, but the impact derailed the four-car train.

“There are people who will go around the arms. My father is not the kind of person who will do this,” Wysocki said. She said she believes he must have been confused when he saw a flashing red arrow or by the crossing arms, which were not directly in front of him because of the odd configuration of the intersection.

The intersection is safe, said officials with Metrolink and the city of Burbank, which reconfigured the crossing last year to accommodate more traffic.

The Buena Vista accident is still under investigation by federal authorities.

Another accident investigated by the PUC occurred Jan. 23 at the Doran Street crossing in Glendale, when a motorist turned her sport utility vehicle onto the tracks. The driver said she was already on the tracks when the warning lights began to flash, and a crossing arm fell onto the roof of her vehicle, according to the report. She escaped before the Amtrak train hit, and no one was injured.

A deadly Jan. 27 crash at the Grandview Avenue crossing in Glendale and a Jan. 30 incident at the Stimson Avenue crossing in the City of Industry were ruled suicides. A fatal Jan. 31 crash at the Wolfskill-Jesse Street crossing in San Fernando was caused by a motorist who drove through the lowered gates, the PUC said.