PUC Begins Study of Accidents Along Metrolink’s Path

Prompted by a spate of recent rail-crossing deaths, the California Public Utilities Commission has quietly launched a study of the Metrolink corridor from Sylmar to downtown Los Angeles.

The study is the first ever of a Metrolink corridor by the PUC, which will look for accident patterns.

“We’re concerned by the number of accidents that have happened on Metrolink lately,” said Rich Clark, the PUC’s director of consumer protection and safety.

So far this year, there have been four fatal incidents along Metrolink tracks, excluding suicides. Two accidents occurred in crossings along the corridor now under PUC study.

A story last month in The Times reported that 10 years of Metrolink records showed that more train-vehicular accidents occurred along an 18-mile corridor from Sylmar to Glendale than along any other in the commuter rail agency’s six-county network.

While the San Fernando corridor accounts for only 5% of Metrolink tracks, it was the site of about a third of all crashes between vehicles or pedestrians and commuter trains.

The PUC’s study, which began earlier this month, will encompass the San Fernando corridor plus three intersections south of Glendale, for a total of 27 rail crossings, officials said. It includes Buena Vista Street in Burbank, where two people died as a result of a Jan. 6 accident, and Wolfskill Street in San Fernando, where a Jan. 31 accident killed one person.

PUC investigators will gather police reports, examine how crossings are designed, and analyze traffic flow for “a fresh look” at the accidents and any patterns among them, Clark said. He declined to predict how long the study would take.

News of the study took some Metrolink officials by surprise.

“Nobody we talked to knows anything about it, but we think it’s a great idea,” said Sharon Gavin, spokeswoman for Metrolink. “It’s in the best interest of everyone’s safety.”