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State fines BART $210,000 for lapses that led to rail worker deaths

A BART police officer looks along the BART tracks along Jones Road in Walnut Creek, where a moving train struck and killed two workers on Oct. 19, 2013.
A BART police officer looks along the BART tracks along Jones Road in Walnut Creek, where a moving train struck and killed two workers on Oct. 19, 2013.
(Dan Rosenstrauch / Associated Press)
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SAN FRANCISCO -- State workplace safety regulators cited the Bay Area Rapid Transit District on Thursday for three “willful serious safety violations” that resulted in two workers being struck and killed by a fast-moving train in Walnut Creek last October.

The Cal/OSHA citations carry proposed penalties totaling $210,000, though those fines are often appealed.

The accident that killed Christopher D. Sheppard and Laurence E. Daniels came during a contentious commuter rail strike, as management was relying on a skeletal workforce. The train that struck the men was training managers as potential drivers in case the labor action became prolonged.

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The Cal/OSHA citations resulted from a months-long investigation that found:

-- Sheppard and Daniels did not meet the qualifications to perform work near energized third rails (Sheppard, 58, was a BART special projects manager; Daniels, 66, was a contractor and consulting engineer.)

-- A trainee was at the train controls when the accident occurred, and his trainer, a high-ranking transportation manager, was seated in the passenger car with other BART managers and another trainee, without a view of the track.

-- BART’s “simple approval” procedure for employees working on the tracks was inadequate and not followed. “Simple approval” is a process that requires employees working on the tracks to be solely responsible for their own safety. Other BART maintenance workers were killed in 2001 and 2008 while working under simple approval, according to Cal/OSHA. BART suspended the practice after last fall’s accident.

Subsequently, the National Transportation Safety Board issued an “urgent safety recommendation,” embraced by the Federal Transit Administration, that all rail agencies nationwide employ “redundant” safety practices for track workers. The California Public Utilities Commission also imposed new regulations affecting such workers statewide.

In a statement Thursday, BART General Manager Grace Crunican said the agency “has fundamentally upgraded its safety procedures with the implementation of an enhanced wayside safety program and a proposed budget investment of over $5 million in additional resources to bolster BART’s safety performance.”

Crunican said Cal/OSHA has informed BART that these changes “correct the concerns which are at the heart of their citations... meaning that none are continuing violations or pose continuing safety hazards.”

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Crunican noted that BART has also “embraced” the CPUC rail safety regulations, which go into effect in May, and “will add extra procedures and protections for track-side crews during both operating and nonoperating hours.”

They call for improved communication between the Operation Control Center, train operators and work crews on the track; safety measures and reduced train speeds when workers are close by; and a mandatory watch person including during nonoperating hours when maintenance vehicles are on the tracks working.

Her statement did not address whether BART planned to appeal the Cal/OSHA fines and a spokesman declined comment.

The NTSB, which investigated the accident, has yet to issue its final report and recommendations.

Twitter @leeromney

lee.romney@latimes.com

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