L.A. County Urges Rail Hazards Probe

Prompted by last weekend’s train derailment near Whittier, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday asked local public safety agencies to investigate rail hazards, including whether there is a need to create buffer zones between homes and railroad tracks.

The motion by Supervisor Gloria Molina also asked Union Pacific railroad to provide a report on track inspection.

“Union Pacific must be held accountable for ensuring the safety of its tracks,” said Molina, whose district includes the neighborhood where a train crashed into backyards Saturday. “They should stop the trains until they can provide these assurances.... What assurance do I have that it’s safe?”

In a letter to Molina on Tuesday, Union Pacific representative Wayne Horiuchi wrote that shutting down rail service in the neighborhood is “a practical impossibility” because of the need to move freight as well as commuters who use Metrolink, which shares the tracks.

Horiuchi also suggested there was little the railroad could have done to prevent the derailment, which damaged four homes, spilled 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel and temporarily displaced more than two dozen families because of a resulting power failure.

Union Pacific, along with federal and state officials, last inspected the track area two days before the derailment and did not notice what investigators believe was the cause, a defect in a bar that connects the rails, railroad officials said.

“The present-day technology does not exist that would permit detection of this type of defect,” Horiuchi wrote.

The derailment is under investigation by the state Public Utilities Commission and the National Transportation Safety Board.

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Times staff writer Sue Fox contributed to this report.